Crimson Heroes
by KicksAndKisses
Summary: Paul Blackwell is not the type of person who has lots of friends to hang out with. In fact, he never had one. It might have been easier to explain that it's because of his aloof and cold attitude, but it's not. People naturally die around him, his original family as well as three succeeding families that adopted him. Is his existence something forbidden? Something cursed?ON HIATUS
1. Prologue

Short: AU, Ikarishipping with other mainstream shippings as well, and also some less mainstream shipping such as Penguinshipping and ShootsDownShipping. Or maybe it is mainstream and I just don't know about it, or whatever. Characters are OOC. I don't own pokemon and hope you enjoy reading :3

* * *

 **CRIMSON HEROES  
**

 **Summary**

Paul Blackwell, an aloof and cold seventeen year old orphan teen ran away from his foster home where he had stayed all his life. He had no family and knew barely anything about them. All he knew was they all died when he was still young. Three succeeding families that tried to adopt him ended with the same fate. Is family something that he was never meant to have? The series of tragic unfortunate events led him to a dark, hidden and mysterious past of a world where malignant creatures used to roam. How he was part of the seven destructive product of an ancient war between two different races. But he was something even more.

 **Prologue**

"Johanna…."

"Johanna wake up.."

It was in the middle of the night, a familiar voice woke Johanna up. She flung her eyes open after recognizing the voice.

The voice was ragged, hoarse and full of dread. And the fact that it came from someone who died made it all the more worse.

"Zarathas!" Johanna hissed. She sat up and gathered her blanket around her defensively, trying to locate where the sound came from.

"You're supposed to be dead years ago!"

"A devil emperor doesn't perish completely." The eerie voice replied, resounding throughout Johanna's darkened room. "But basically I'm dead. I can't do anything more than just talk to you. This is just my last remaining essence."

"Last remaining essence?" The baffled bluenette questioned.

"Don't mind it for now."

The hairs on Johanna's skin stood up as she felt _something_ creeping up close to her, a cold eerie gust brushed past her.

"Listen." Zarathas continued. "The children, save them, please. Jhon is planning to dispose them by morning."

"WHAT?!"

"Ssshh…" Zarathas cut her off. "I've seen you take care of them and I know just how close they are to you. Please."

"But I believe father wouldn't do such a thing!" Johanna retorted. "I..I mean he may have done some nasty things to them, but he would never kill them!"

"Your father have gone crazy! Those experiments, have you even seen them yourself? If you call my ways devilish and inhuman then I wonder what does that make your father."

Johanna casted down her sapphire eyes at the memories of her father bringing the children to their isolated chambers where their cries would haunt the castle all day.

She bit the insides of her cheek.

For a voice that was coming from the king of all devils, worry and concern was glued in the echoes of his voice. Even such ruthless creatures were capable of worrying and concern.

"I've seen demons and humans in all shapes and sizes for years, and your father is one of the worst of your kind."

Johanna stood up from her bed and slipped her feet inside her slippers. With her night gown, she wrapped her favorite red scarf around her neck as she rushed outside of her room towards the basement floor of the castle where the seven children were kept.

"What do you want me to do?" She asked as she made her way downstairs with a lamp on her right hand.

"Gather them up and bring them outside."

She nodded as she heaved open the heavy steel doors of each room of the seven kids – four boys and three girls, the ten year old half-devil septuplets.

She then gathered all of them by the stairs. She put aside her lamp, dimly illuminating their surroundings. Even with little lighting, Johanna could still see the bruises, scars and stitch marks embedded all over their bodies – the aftermath of five excruciating years of experimentation.

She tried her best not to cry at the sight before her.

With the darkness around them, seven individual bright red irises glowed.

They all yawned together.

"Mother?" One asked. "Why are you here?"

"You're supposed to be resting."

"Grandpa sure will get mad at you."

Even though at their state, they were more concerned at her.

What kind of evil creature would worry about others? They were all adorable, selfless, obedient and good children.

She knelt down and hugged them tightly.

"Let's get all of you outside first okay?" She broke the hug and wiped a tear from her eyes.

They all nodded as they started climbing up the stairs.

Johanna and the children all gasped for air once they were outside of the castle. She nudged one that she piggy-backed because he was still sleeping. She then put him down as soon as he stretched his arms.

"You idiot! You shouldn't let mother carry you! You're not a baby anymore!" A girl reprimanded.

"Hah, I know it! You're just jealous." He yawned as he stuck out his tongue at her.

Johanna suppressed her laughter, they were really kids after all. Their eyes, the left one which was normal and the right one which was red, scanned the surroundings curiously.

Ever since the children were aware of how their eyes looked, they have despised mirrors. Because it just made them realize how much of a monster they all were. All of Jhon's, Johanna's father, workers found distraught and intimidation in the eyes of the children. But to Johanna, the children's eyes were the most beautiful thing she have ever seen.

Johanna's right hand suddenly glowed bright and a silver dagger with a peculiar scent materialized.

'This weapon is my last remaining essence, use this to stab the children so they may be free from their physical bodies. They won't die I assure you. I'll gather each of their spiritual essence and scatter them throughout the region so they may be reborn again. Each of them will have different families, and hopefully they will forget everything that happened to them here. And hopefully, they will lose their destructive powers as well. This is my last wish and you know this is what your sister would have wanted for them, as our beloved children.'

Johanna gripped the dagger tightly. She then stabbed the children one by one, no blood dripped and there were no wounds. Instead, orbs of different colors came out from their bodies and floated around her. Even though she didn't say anything to them, each of them seem to understand what she just did. They danced around her, laughing and giggling.

It made her remember when they were still five years old, way back before they were experimented. They were really sad back then because of how their eyes looked, that they weren't normal, that they were devils meant for killing and destruction and they were responsible for the deaths of a lot of people in the castle. They came to fear and hate the color red. But Johanna told them that the color red was also the color of a hero, that the color red was a sign of beauty. She told them that they weren't devils at all, they were little super heroes with beautiful gems. She told them that what they have wasn't a curse, but super powers.

And they would laugh and giggle pretending to be little heroes.

The sight was so overwhelming that Johanna broke down and cried.

For someone who cared deeply for them, all she wished was nothing but happiness and comfort to each and everyone of them. They had suffered and cried more than they ever had smiled or laughed.

"Why are you crying mother?" A purple orb floated near her asked. "It didn't hurt me at all!"

"In fact, it made all my hurt disappear!" One answered.

"Yes, it wasn't painful!"

Johanna didn't answer and she just continued bawling.

When she looked up, she saw that the orbs were slowly gathering above her. The laughter and giggles stopped, as if they got tired of it and decided to sleep. It was in the middle of the night after all.

She wiped her tears away and waved her hand goodbye as they sprinted out flying in opposite directions.

"Thank you Johanna, I could never be grateful enough for what you just did for me." The devil emperor's voice rang around her.

"I did it for the children." She replied. "And for my sister."

"I still thank you nonetheless."

"I'm going to miss them. I hope they'll forget every bitter and painful things they went through here once they'll be born again." She answered and stared up at the starry night sky.

"Before I'll disappear completely, as my thanks I'm going to give you a gift. This will be for the future."

A mystical glow formed and seeped inside Johanna before vanishing in a second. She felt dizzy and light-headed for the duration and took her a minute to compose herself.

As the cold wind howled around her, she could no longer feel the devil's presence. The cold wind swayed her short midnight blue locks. By the far horizon on the sea, the sun was slowly rising up.

She removed her red scarf and stared at the rising sun.

"I hope I was able to be a good mother to them." She whispered to herself as she gripped on the red piece of clothing.

"Please stay as loving as you all were to your new mothers."

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 **A.N** : Anyone familiar with Kangerou Project? Yes this story is inspired from that amazing piece! Hopefully I can update as soon as I can though. Please do leave a review, I would really appreciate it! :3


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One – Seventeen Years Later.**

…

" _Shinji? Are you okay?" A blue haired woman peeked through the steel doors of his room._

" _Mother…" The boy, named Shinji, cried. "I can't sleep, my back hurts, everything hurts so much.."_

" _Oh it's your wound." The woman replied worriedly, coming to him closer. "Your wound is bleeding again." She added as she started applying a new set of dressing to it._

" _There, feeling better?"_

" _Yes!" He answered as he hugged her. "Do you think I'll still become a good super hero someday?" He asked as he snuggled closer to her. "Do you really think that my eye is a beautiful?_

" _Of course!" She started to comb his dry velvet hair. "Your eye is far more beautiful and precious than any gems I've seen. And do you know what makes it prettier than any gems?"_

" _I don't know.."_

" _It's because it's alive."_

 _Shinji giggled heartedly as if he wasn't hurting earlier._

" _And no one can steal it away from you, it's yours alone. They can only gaze at it in jealousy."_

 _He pulled back his head and looked at her, his bright red right eye slightly illuminating the dark room. She wiped a tear that slid down his cheek._

" _Do you think I'll become a better hero than my sisters and brothers?" He asked._

" _I believe even better than all of your other siblings." She smiled softly at him._

 _He laughed and smiled back._

" _I can't wait to grow up! And save lots of people!"_

…

It was seven in the morning and a soft knocking was heard on the door of Paul's room.

He squinted his eyes and pulled the covers over him.

He was having the same set of dreams again with the familiar blue-haired woman who kept on calling him Shinji. He knew fully well that it was a just dream but somehow he felt a deeper connection to it as if it was something that happened to him in some other way unknown to him – a lost memory.

"Just leave him alone Sister, he may still be asleep." The voice on the other side of the door suggested.

"Don't you think it is better this way?"

"Sister Anna! How dare you talk something like that about one of our dear children!"

"Sorry.."

A few more knocks were heard before everything went still and quiet.

Paul was well aware of how big today was going to be. Today, Veilstone City Orphanage was celebrating its 15th Anniversary. For someone who was avoided by everyone in the orphanage, who caused nothing but fear and dismay, he decided to lock himself inside his own isolated room.

Paul has spent all his life living in the orphanage where Sister Cheryl, head Sister of the orphanage, had been taking care of him way before he even knew who he was. He knew little background of his original family. One thing he knew was that his mother died giving birth to him seventeen years ago, and soon after his birth, all of his family members died. It was so odd that he found it unbelievable.

He bitterly entertained the idea that he was something else, that he was something inhuman, something cursed. And it was something connected to his reoccurring dreams with the blue-haired woman with beautiful sapphire eyes, whom he kept on calling his mother.

When he was five the first family that adopted him all died mysteriously and he was sent back to the orphanage, and so the same thing happened to the second and third family that adopted him in the following years. It was as if wherever he went, people just die.

As if he was never meant to have a family, as if he was Death incarnate.

The series of unfortunate events that happened around him glued fear in the hearts of everyone in the orphanage. Everyone was afraid of him that they believe they might die too if they got close to him. He was eventually put at an isolated room away from everyone. It was only Sister Cheryl that hadn't changed her caring attitude at him even after the tragic events.

When he removed the pillow under his head to cover his eyes, he felt something underneath it. It was the picture Sister Cheryl gave to him ten years ago – a wallet size picture of his biological mother with his name 'Paul Blackwell' written in cursive at the back.

Because of the fact that he had barely any information about his original family, he doubted if it was his real mother that was in the picture. She looked so different from the one in his dreams. But then again it was all just a dream. The one in the picture and the one in his dreams, both were so unreal that they were depressing.

He sat up on his bed and stared at the object, she may not look the same as the one he dreamt constantly but they both shared the same purple hair and eyes and the same firm and stiff smile. The only thing that was different was the expression of their eyes. Her mother looked so beautiful and calm with her velvet irises. Unlike his, though velvet his eyes were dull and stormy. He thought that he might have gotten the expression of his eyes from his biological father.

He sighed and caught view of his bedroom mirror. He stood up and went near it.

He exhaled deeply, closed his eyes and opened them one by one before examining himself on the mirror.

He breathed out a sigh of relief.

He checked out his limbs, they weren't sturdy nor they were weak. They were fair and normal. But unlike in his dreams, they weren't full of stitch marks that ached like crazy.

 _I told you we should have never adopted that child! Look at his right eye! It's red! It's a manifestation of a devil!_

 _Devils still exist today! I knew it!_

 _Call an exorcist! A priest or whatever, this kid is a demon! A killer!_

 _A MONSTER!_

Paul winced at the sudden recalled memory.

Even though he wanted to have the same eyes as his mother, he somehow found comfort in his own velvet dull eyes. At least they weren't what he feared others claimed them to be – bright red filled with malicious intent.

The families that adopted him saw how his right eye glowed red, and before they could do anything Paul would see them fall down one by one, dead. He never saw his right eye glow red before but ever since then he feared that the iris of his right eye was capable of turning red. And that he really was a killing machine.

He was so afraid that he rarely looked at himself.

He peeked through the curtains of his window and saw how cheerful the other kids were in preparing for the event. There were lots of balloons, confetti and food. Laughter was all around.

"I think it's better for them if I leave this place." He closed back the curtains. He stared back at the picture of his mother one last time before sliding it into his pocket.

"I'll leave a note for Sister Cheryl at least."

…

The bell of Hearthrome Generic Pharmacy chimed as a certain blue-haired girl excitedly went inside. She placed her bag over the counter as she unbuttoned her school blouse revealing a white tank.

"Dawn!" Solidad, the head of the pharmacy, was surprised to see the cheerful bluenette early. "Aren't you a bit early today? It's still five pm, your working shift doesn't start until six."

"Nah, school just started and we had an early dismissal. They kept on talking about devils still existing nonsense." She answered as she slid on her white working blouse. "And plus." She twirled around in her white working uniform and smiled at her. "I love working here!" She hid her bag and hurriedly went behind the counter.

"It's always so refreshing to see you work so hard." Dawn only answered her with a grin as the bell chimed for the second time. "Well, I'll be at the storage room." She added before disappearing completely behind the storage room.

"Yes mam!" Dawn saluted as she properly positioned her white nursing cap on her head. She tapped her skirt before facing the costumer that just got inside.

"What can I-" She cut herself off when she realized the costumer was a childhood friend.

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Looking pretty as always Deedee." A brunet sneered at her.

"Har har, funny Kenny." She rolled her eyes at him. "Now what can I get you _dear_ costumer." She batted her eyelashes at him.

He rested his elbow on the counter and stared at her.

"Your smile is all the medicine I need." He grinned.

"Dimwit!" She blushed slightly and looked away. "I'll surely give you a beating of a lifetime if I'll get fired because of you!" She composed herself.

Kenny stood up and laughed.

"Why can't you just be my girlfriend already?" He asked. "I mean I've been asking you for three years already."

She looked down and sighed, a familiar kind of sadness starting to resurface.

"Kenny I told you already. I'm not gonna be-"

"What? You're gonna say all those weird devil bullshit at me! Look at me Dawn, I love you and I have loved you way back when we were kids! I can protect you from any devil whether they still exist or not and I am willing to put my life at stake for you!" Kenny cut her off.

He gave her that stare filled with determination and sincerity.

"You, you don't understand.." She replied, deciding not to meet his gaze and looked at the floor.

Kenny sighed. "I'm sorry." He shook his head dejectedly. "I'm sorry I suddenly brought this up Dawn."

She looked at him and sighed.

"I'll just be outside okay? I'll walk you home tonight. I love you." He waved off and went out as soon as Dawn nodded.

The bell chimed for the third time as Dawn regained her composure and greeted the costumer.

But before she was able to do so, Solidad inserted herself.

"Dawn, I believe you really don't have to start your work this early. I may not be a doctor or whatsoever but I know just as much that a little walk outside might help you ease a little." Her coral-haired boss advocated.

Dawn thanked her mentally before leaving her nurse cap on the counter and went outside.

She met with her brunet bestfriend and the two decided to stroll around the city for a while.

Dawn Berlitz originally lived with only her mother at Twinleaf Town, a quiet town several miles away from Hearthrome City. She never knew anything about her father. She used to constantly ask her mother anything about him but she would give her that saddened look always and would dismiss the topic immediately. She never knew why her mother wouldn't talk to her about her father.

And unfortunately, as time progressed, the topic stressed out a gap in between her relationship with her mother that she eventually lost her trust in her. She ran away from home before she started her high school and started to support herself as a cashier in Hearthrome's Generic Pharmacy. She decided that if her mother wouldn't speak to her anything about her father, she would just look for him herself whether he's still alive or not.

Kenny Kengo was Dawn's childhood friend way back at Twinleaf Town. Since there were only a few people living at such a quiet and peaceful town, they became good friends really quick. Kenny was never the outgoing and social type of person. In fact he was timid and really shy to the point that he hated social gatherings and crowds. Dawn was really fascinated how Kenny approached her easily as if he saw something that pulled him to her.

Dawn had long entertained the idea of leaving town during her middle school, it was Kenny who helped her pushed the idea by leaving town with her three years ago. They're both currently residing inside the same apartment complex.

"You wanna grab something before going back to work?" Kenny asked as they made their way through the busy sidewalk of Hearthrome City.

The sun had set minutes ago and what was left were tiny debris of orange rays that seemed to settle and crowd at the distant horizon of the sky. Street lamps slowly lit one after another.

Dawn looked at her partner beside her and her gaze slowly directed to his beautiful blue tear-shaped necklace.

The brunet noticed this and stopped walking. He wrapped his hand around the cold object. "If you want I'll give this to you someday." He smiled.

"What? You don't have t-" She was cut off when she heard a loud thud coming from an alley they just passed. Her ears perked up and they both traced back a few steps.

Both teens stared at the seemingly long and dark alley beside them, it was still, quiet and devoid of life. They could see nothing as the darkness was all-consuming, then they both felt something evil that their hairs stood up and they each broke out in a cold sweat. Their vision slowly adjusted to the darkness that they were able to slowly make things out from the surroundings, from trashes scattered on the ground to the tiny vandals on the walls.

And finally, three lying bodies on the ground. They were all lifelessly still.

And in between the bodies stood a figure barely standing up.

"This is bad." Kenny whispered and squeezed Dawn's hand. "Dawn this is not good, we gotta go! Now!"

But the bluenette stayed in her place. It was evident in her eyes that she was afraid, but at the same time she had that strong and fierce expression.

The dark figure noticed the pair and glared at them with a bright crimson eye that glowed in the dark.

The atmosphere suddenly went dangerously appalling and paralyzing.

They both gulped noiselessly.

The red eye they saw weren't just frightening, they were brimming with malevolence.

And hunger.

"This is really bad.." Kenny whispered. "Dawn!" He shouted at her. "It's gonna kill us!"

Dawn only backed away a few centimeters. The dark figure walked to them slowly. No, he wasn't walking, more like limping.

"I got this!" Kenny charged himself in front of her and stood in a defensive stance.

Before the mysterious figure could even reach them by a meter, he collapsed on the cold pavement. It was then they realized that it was a boy about the same age as them.

Dawn swiftly rushed to him, knelt down and cupped his head. He had purple hair. His jeans and sweater were tattered and torn. And by the look of it, he seemed fatigued and his face was drained of colors. And what shocked the bluenette more were his eyes. They were half-open yet she could make out the colors they were – one velvet and the other red.

She really just wasn't seeing it earlier, that eye filled with killing intent was really his.

"Kenny! We have to bring him-"

"Woah… Do you think he did this?" Kenny paced around the bodies on the ground. "They all have no pulse Dawn. They're all dead."

Dawn's heartbeat suddenly pumped rapidly and loudly.

"And what's even weirder?" Kenny continued. "No blood, no injuries, their mouths are foaming and their eyes, it's all white. This is too bizarre, like _something_ overwhelmed them to death."

She looked back flabbergasted at the boy he held, his right eye reverting gradually back to normal.

The boy opened his eyes once more and looked at Dawn. Unlike earlier, his eyes were brimming with tears and remorse.

His eyes were trembling.

"M-mo-mother..I-I'm sorry."

It was the last thing he said before fainting.

Dawn looked at Kenny with tears she weren't even aware of.

"Kenny we need help."


	3. Chapter Two

**A.N:** Just a quick news, I changed some characters, well just one actually. Instead of Maylene I replaced her with Cheryl, the one with long green hair. I just thought so because Maylene just doesn't fit the character, so, and, uh, yeah. Minor changes.

 **MespiritAngel** : Mess-chan! Thanks for your review! :3

 **SosoAndGlaceon** : Thank you! I do try my best. But for your question, you'll just have to find out ahihi thanks for the review again :3

 **I don't own pokemon!**

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 **Chapter Two – A Birthday Wish**

 _Everything was hazy and blurry. Paul felt all his senses had shut down, and he wasn't regaining them any minute. He felt numb and cold. He couldn't move a single muscle, more or less blink his eyelids or move his eyes._

 _With the little vision he got, all he could distinguish was a blinding light over him._

 _And whispers, he heard them. Harsh whispers._

 _A lot of people were surrounding his lying body. Five, six, seven, he couldn't count exactly how many they were._

 _All of their faces were darkened by the bright light behind their heads. He couldn't see their faces. All he identified were only surgical masks._

 _It somehow terrified him, but only just a little. A slight tingle ran across his spine._

 _'What are they talking about? Are they talking about me?' He thought._

 _"Why am I assigned to this kid? Subject7 is the most dangerous of the seven! He could kill us in an instant!"_

 _"Seriously!? Have you ever been assigned to Subject6? The brunette with puppy-ear styled hair. The previous batch that took charge of her all hanged themselves inside her chamber! That sight still haunts me every night."_

 _"No! Subject1 is the most terrifying! When we opened the chamber of that spiky auburn head the other day, he was left alone and the scientists that worked on him disappeared without any trace. They were never found up to this day! They say he's capable of either reducing you to nothing, sending you back into time or into the future or transporting you to the Abyss. Nobody knows!"_

 _"You're scared of disappearing? Subject4 is capable of burning anyone in indistinguishable fire! That girl manifests the eternal flames of the Abyss. The Inferno!"_

 _"Burning huh? How do you feel about being frozen solid in indestructible ice alive?"_

 _"Shut up! All seven of them are dangerous! Not a single one of them is less favorable than the other! All of them are capable of killing you in a single second. They're far more dangerous than any devils we've encountered. What did you expect of cursed demi-devils of the most powerful devil emperor?"_

 _"You're right. When will Jhon ever stop with all these experiments? How many people will have to die for him so he would realize that these kids are useless to us! Why can't he be satisfied that we already won the war? We don't need these kids."_

 _"We should just kill these cursed half-bloods while they're still young."_

 _"And when will all of you realize that sharing your touching experience with the cursed half-bloods will get us nowhere? Now hand me that scalpel and syringe so we'll have something to report today at least."_

 _Paul had no idea what they were talking about._

 _Kids, monsters, seven, devils, subjects, curses, experiments, war and deaths._

 _All thoughts he swallowed forcibly only produced a throbbing headache._

 _He closed back his eyes. He didn't care whatever they were talking about earlier. He slowly and willingly lose hold of his consciousness._

 _He allowed only a single thought to remain in his mind – after all of this today, he'll get to see her mother and she would read to him his favorite book._

…

One by one, Paul slowly opened his eyes. He was sleeping on something soft and comfortable. A blanket was over him. He almost believed that he was back at his foster home.

He sat himself up. He was sleeping on the couch.

"Where the heck am I?" He groaned and felt his head. His head was pulsating.

He looked around and tried to make out where he was despite with his aching head.

The walls of the room were green, low ceiling with a huge red fan attached in the center. A few meters in front of him was a glass table set with two wooden chairs. Just a few centimeters in front of the table was a flat screen TV. Beside the TV was a shelf perfectly lined with books and magazines. It was a small room yet it held that 'home' atmosphere just perfectly.

Even more perfectly than the room where he once slept and lived his years of existence. Unlike his room back in the foster care, this one didn't feel empty and lonely. He had never been here before but a wave of nostalgia had hit him hard for no logical reason.

Fresh suburban air breezed through the room, lifting up the pink checkered curtains revealing walls of tall establishments outside. Basing from the temperature, he guessed that it was some time mid-morning, maybe around ten AM.

He tried remembering what had happened before he blacked out, but he couldn't. He only remembered how he left Veilstone City Orphanage and had arrived at Hearthrome City.

"Oh, yeah, I remember. I left foster home during its 15th anniversary yesterday."

He removed the blanket over him and winced when his bare feet made contact with the cold tiles of the floor. It was then he found out that he had no clothes on other than his white boxers.

"So you're awake already." He heard a voice coming from behind him. "How was your rest?"

Paul turned around and saw a girl with light blue hair about the same age as his. She was wearing a white tank top with blue shorts. She had that welcoming expression and warm smile that left a tingling sensation in Paul's guts.

She was holding a metal tray. She walked past him and placed the object on the table in front.

"How are you feeling?" The bluenette asked softly.

" _Of course! Your eye is far more beautiful and precious than any gems I've seen. And do you know what makes it prettier than any gems? It's because it's alive. And no one can steal it away from you, it's yours alone. They can only gaze at it in jealousy."_

The bluenette cleared her throat awkwardly, knocking Paul out from his stupor. "Uh, is there something on my face?"

"Oh, uh, no, sorry." Paul replied, rapidly shaking his head. He mentally slapped himself for staring weirdly at the girl in front of him. "A bit dizzy, but I'm fine."

Her ocean blue locks and her kind and gentle blue eyes. The bluenette reminded him so much of that woman he kept on seeing in his dreams that he couldn't help but wonder if they were somehow related.

But he immediately dismissed the idea and thought that the headache was just messing with his mind.

"Well, uh, it's good to know that you're fine already, uh, Paul." She let out a soft chuckle.

"Wait a second! How did you know my name?" He asked. "And where the hell are my clothes?!" He followed.

"They were dirty so I washed them for you." She replied, still keeping up her smile at him.

"You just _casually_ undressed me woman?!" He appalled, his innate anti-social response kicked in. "Have you got no sense of decency?!" Paul stood up, revealing to her that he was just wearing his boxers.

She squeaked and covered her eyes in embarrassment. "What? No! Kenny removed your clothes, not me!" She backed away and slipped as her bottom hit the floor. Still covering her eyes, she retorted. "And I have a name, excuse you!"

"Oh geez does it look like I know your name, Einstein?" He rolled his eyes. "And seriously? You let me sleep in your room, half-naked, and now you're _this_ embarrassed seeing me in boxers?" He shook his head dejectedly.

"Because I'm a girl okay!" She stood up and clipped her hip. "Is that hard to understand?"

Since she was wearing a white tank top with short blue shorts while he was wearing nothing but his white boxers, they were both practically _almost_ naked. They were standing face to face and so close that their bodies almost touched with each other. Finally realizing the circumstances around her, Dawn quickly turned around in embarrassment.

Too bad it took her minutes before she realized that her face must have been blinking multiple shades of red since minutes ago.

"Thank you.." She heard Paul mutter words of gratitude. "Really.."

While Paul has cooled down, he finally said his gratitude before he was able to say anything else unnecessary. He hoped that she was able to apprehend that he's not the verbally expressive type of person.

She breathed in deeply and smiled. She faced him back again with a renewed smile on her face. "My name is Dawn! Dawn Berl-"

Her smile slowly died when she realized that she was talking to no one in particular. He was no longer in front of her as he was in the far corner of her room looking for something.

"Where the heck did you put my clothes?" He asked without looking back at her as he went through her shelves.

Dawn dropped her shoulders. "This guy can't be serious."

She heaved a sigh and went to him.

"I'm sure this is the one you're looking for." She reached out her palm, handing to him a picture of a woman in mid-20 with short velvet hair and lavender eyes.

"It's how I knew your name."

He took the object and began to stare at it quietly. The picture slowly pulled his sadness out from his eyes, completely exposing them.

"Sister Cheryl.." He muttered to himself.

…

 _Paul heard someone knocking on the door of his room. He found it unusual because aside from the fact that someone would rarely look for him in the orphanage, it was in the middle of the night – exactly a minute past midnight._

 _"It's me, Sister Cheryl. You didn't show up this morning, it was the orphanage's 5_ _th_ _anniversary." The voice whispered. "Will you let me inside? I got a surprise for you."_

 _Knowing it was Sister Cheryl he quickly jumped off of bed and turned the knob of the door._

 _"Happy Seventh Birthday Paul!" She whispered, holding two pieces of chocolate honeycomb cupcakes, his favorite dessert. "I reserved this from the party this morning just for you."_

 _Paul's velvet eyes widened in overflowing happiness that he immediately hugged her. He was so overjoyed that he hugged her so tight that she could hardly breathe._

 _Sister Cheryl knew very well that Paul was never the verbally expressive type of person. She understood that hugging her so tight without letting go was his own way of expressing his deep appreciation at her._

 _"How will I be able to get inside if you'll never let me go?" She chuckled._

 _"No." Paul scolded. "Just a few more minutes."_

 _She smiled as she felt her shirt slowly get soaked with warm tears from him. "Your hug is my favorite out of all the children in here. It's just so full of warmth and emotions."_

 _"I'm not crying okay!" He argued. "Just so you know.." He sniffed._

 _She laughed quietly. "Of course you're not." She gently wrapped her arms around him. "You're a grown up now."_

 _"Oh I forgot. I've got a special present for you. Now remember, whatever happened in the past or whatever may happen in the future, I want your wish for this birthday to stay the same."_

 _"Am I still allowed to wish for happiness this year?"_

 _"Of course! It's always okay to wish for happiness."_

 _"No matter how sad I'll get?"_

 _"Yes."_

 _"No matter how many times I make people sad?"_

 _"Yes."_

 _Paul dug his face deeper into her skirt._

 _"B-but, I-I'm a-a m-mons-monster!" Paul tightened his hug. "Mons-monsters do-don't become ha-happy."_

 _"How many times have I told you? How could an obedient and good child like you be a monster?" She replied. Cheryl knelt down and leaned in closer for his sake. "Here hold this." She handed him the cupcake and took something out from her side pocket._

 _"Is this my mother?" Paul asked. Despite the darkness of the room, she could still see the tears that made his lavender eyes glimmer in faint light._

 _"Yes. This is my gift for you." She smiled. "You really looked like her. She's so pretty and beautiful. No monster could ever have such a beautiful mother."_

 _Paul stared at the picture in amazement._

 _"You know Paul, mothers are very selfless beings. They care nothing but happiness for their children, even if it costs their own life. The way you're suffering right now, I could just imagine how much your mother would be suffering as well."_

 _Cheryl hugged him again and whispered. "That's why I want you to continue on wishing for happiness. I may not be your real mother but your happiness is what I've always wished for. I want you to be happy. Even if it means reserving you your favorite dessert away from several children and waking you up in the middle of the night to wish you a happy birthday."_

 _"Happy Birthday Paul! Please continue on wishing for happiness, for me and for you mother."_

 _She didn't expect that she would cry. She promised that she would never cry in front of him, but she failed to foresee about her emotions getting the better of her._

 _"For my birthday this year, I still wish for happiness." He cracked a bittersweet smile across his tear-stained face and hugged her tight again._

 _"Let's wish for it together."_

…

"Paul..?" Dawn asked worriedly when she noticed that he had been staring blankly at the picture for a couple of minutes already. "Are you okay?"

"Can I stay here for a while?" He asked silently, hoping his voice wouldn't crack.

"Sure, take your time." She replied. "Is there anyth-" She cut herself off when he just walked past her.

He slowly dragged himself back and lied down on the sofa. He curled up and covered himself with the blanket.

"No, you don't need to do anything for me."

Without Cheryl and left with only the picture of his mother, he still bitterly wished for happiness on his seventeenth birthday today.

 _Happy Birthday Paul! Please continue on wishing for happiness, for me and for you mother._

He did promise her after all.

* * *

 **A.N** : I hope I could keep the updates this quick, but I know I can't. I'd probably lose it in the upcoming chapters. A review would be highly appreciated. Thank you for reading :)


	4. Chapter Three

**A.N** : Hey yo! Kicks here again with another update! This came a lot late because I've been plagued with exams for two weeks now, ugh.

 **Shadow Rosealine** : Thanks for the review! I do try my best to write good aha

 **Guest** : Big thank you for the review! Though sorry if the update came late huhu cheers!

 **QUEENSPELLER67** : Thanks for the review! I always try to make it look interesting,xD

I don't own pokemon and it's characters! :3

* * *

 **Chapter Three – A Sacrifice and a Mistake**

"Hey Dawn, you okay?"

Zoning out of herself for the nth time of the day, a spiky redhead classmate of hers came into vision from the parameters of her peripheral sight.

"You've been out of yourself these days." Zoey added. "Is everything alright?" She asked as she took a seat right beside her.

Everyone in her class or school in general, viewed Dawn as the happy-go-lucky and too-cheerful-for-her-own-good individual. Ironically also, despite with that labeling, which by the way wasn't something she planned for herself, she only has a single friend – Zoey Nozomi.

It's not that she hated socializing, in fact she even wanted to have a lot of friends. She was just painfully aware that something, somewhere deep inside her, she was not allowed to have such right.

She felt herself as something out of the ordinary, something different.

And with the news about devils still roaming around, having a lot of friends might put her life into danger, even though she doesn't know what kind of dangers they could do.

It didn't take much intelligence to know that devils are something to be avoided.

In school, everyone around her seemed to be changing constantly that she couldn't make friends. However weird that sounded she felt foreign coming into class as if it was the first day of school all over again despite knowing the names of her classmates already. The school seemed to have no sense of permanency, not that there _was_ exactly concrete evidence of that change but Dawn could just sense it.

She was never the too-shy to interact with anybody kind of person so feeling odd somehow terrified her. She didn't like the feeling. Not only that the school intensified her sense of being odd, she felt disturbed and uneasy. She couldn't even remember when she started to have such vague and clawing feelings.

"No, everything is alright.." She replied to her, trying hard not to make it sound as if she was convincing herself. She retracted back her look outside and looked at her for courtesy sake.

She forced a smiled.

"You're so bad at this." Zoey felt her head as she let a sigh breezed through her lips.

Even though it's just the second week of school, they were already plagued with assignments and exams. It was a huge down of being in one of the most prestigious universities in Sinnoh region. Dawn had been complaining to her since the previous days about the swarm of homework she had to do and now that her bestfriend had caught up that something was troubling her, she knew that those damn piles of useless works wouldn't work as an excuse.

Knowing that her bestfriend was not excused from the same predicament, she had to do better than that.

"Spill it or else I won't stop bothering you." Zoey showed a toothed grin, like the usual Zoey she had ever admired since knowing her months ago. It comforted her knowing that at least there's still something she considered permanent.

Dawn looked down at her fingers. She didn't know what to say when she herself had little understanding of the actual problem. She would like to say that it's complicated, but she knew that Zoey won't have any of that.

Lunch break had just started a minute ago and she decided that it was enough time to maybe share her some troubles going on around her.

She inhaled deeply.

"Are you okay with class Zoey?" She asked.

Zoey shot her with a confused look before answering.

"Uh, no?" Zoey answered, scratching her head. Unsure if that was what Dawn wanted to hear from her. "Lots of homework, consecutives exams, inconsiderate teachers, horrifying principal and, uh, wait lemme just get my list of things I hated about school." She stood up and tried to take something out from her knapsack.

"No, uh, yes, I mean, that's okay, really." Dawn stopped her. "What I mean is that, don't you feel out of place here? Like you're some sort of stranger, despite knowing all of them for three years you just feel like you've known them just now." She looked at her. "Sorry I can't say it any better."

"I'll be honest Dawn." Zoey replied knowingly as she tried to relocate the straps of her bag on her shoulder. "I don't understand you." She answered flatly.

Dawn chuckled.

"I'm so stupid! I mean how could you understand when you just transferred here last semester?" The bluenette palmed her face in embarrassment.

"Hey! You're an honor student! You're not stupid." Zoey said in a matter-of-fact tone. "If you are then what does that make me?"

Dawn's chuckling slowly came to a halt.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She stood up and picked her shoulder bag from her seat. "I guess I'm just a little bit paranoid of everything going on around lately."

"You mean those reoccurring mysterious deaths? News about devils still existing today?"

"Let's not talk about it." Dawn replied quickly. "Hey how about we grab something to eat? Man I'm hungry!"

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Zoey pumped a fist. "And you gotta tell me about mister boyfriend!" She looked at her eagerly.

"What?! I don't have a boyfriend!" Dawn appalled as they went out of the doors of their classroom.

"You didn't even tell me his name. Am I even supposed to be your bestfriend? Well this sucks."

"Ugh jeez, knock it off. I don't have a boyfriend."

"Spill it or else I won't stop bothering you."

"Zoey please, not this again."

After a few minutes of walking towards the cafeteria, and debating on the existence of Dawn's supposed to be boyfriend, both teens quickly moved in to their usual spot inside.

Thinking about Kenny, she wondered why he's been acting distant and strange the past few days after finding Paul.

…

 _"Pssssh, stupid Dawn.." A disappointed grunt of a peculiar seven year old blond slowly woke up Kenny._

 _Kenny hardly remembered anything what happened before he was lying bruised and battered on the grassy floor of a forest he had never been to. Sunlight peeked through the canopy making tiny spots of light on his cheeks. The cool and low humidity of the forest dampened his tattered shirt as cold water droplets from dews on leaves way up above dropped from time to time on the bare skin of his bruised arm._

 _All he remembered from the previous night was running, fire and a mob after him. And to save himself he had to leave_ _ **her**_ _behind despite his childish claims and protest. If it wasn't for her, who knows what could have happened to him that night. He might not be able to see sunlight like this again._

 _"Who's there..?" He asked, still in a daze. He winced in pain when he accidently bumped his elbow at a nearby rock._

 _As the voice he noticed was alarmingly coming closer, he tried his best to stand up so he could run but the sprain on both of his ankles didn't allow him to._

 _He hissed in pain. He tried crawling behind a huge root in hopes that he might hide himself, but the pain was too unbearable that his every breath felt stabbing._

 _"I can't believe she would do that to m-" The blond paused when he saw Kenny lying around a huge root of a tall tree. "Oh, uh, you okay? You're hurt!" He exclaimed._

 _Kenny cried when he was running up to him. "Don't come near me!" He tried backing away only to corner himself against the huge root. "Please!"_

 _"Huh? I'm not gonna hurt you." The blond stopped and walked towards him slowly. "My name is Barry. I will help you." The blond never knew why he would be so afraid of him. He thought that maybe he was just still in shock from whatever that happened to him, he was all bruised and his clothes were all torn after all. He wondered what could have happened to him or who was responsible for it._

 _When the blond took another closer step, he noticed something he wasn't aware earlier._

" _Please don't come near me.." Kenny cowered. His body gave way to a violent tremble._

" _Your eyes.." Barry whispered. "They're red."_

 _Realization washed over Kenny._

' _A human?' He thought. 'How did I get to the human world?'_

" _Are you perhaps, uh, a devil?" The blond asked, a voice glued with concern rather than threat._

 _At the word 'devil' Kenny's red eyes glowed upon instinct as well as a blue tear-shaped pendant on his palm._

" _I will survive! Even if it means taking your life!" He roared as a blinding aura of sapphire engulfed both of them. After a few minutes, the light slowly faded revealing only Kenny, no sign of Barry. No scent, no footprint. Not a single sign of his presence._

 _He fell unconscious and his grip opened itself slowly revealing the pendant given to him last night still shimmering in faint blue lights. His irises slowly turning black, a more human color before closing completely._

…

Kenny woke up from his afternoon nap. He thought that nightmares would only occur during sleeps at night but he never knew those painful nightmares would also haunt him during the day. There seemed to be no escape.

Ever since that day he and Dawn met this guy Paul, Kenny had restless nights of tormenting nightmares. Not only that he resurfaced his gruesome past when Kenny almost died, but Paul made him remember a mistake he made that up to this day he gravely regretted. It was an unforgivable mistake.

He knew Barry was just trying to help him, but Kenny accidentally ended up killing him instead. And if that wasn't bad enough, he replaced him as Dawn's bestfriend. It was a sin he could never repent, he accepted that fact bitterly. Even though Dawn would never know about it, his consciousness just wouldn't allow him to have that peace of mind.

He and Dawn just met that Paul guy, they barely knew anything about him and yet Dawn was so much into helping him. He didn't know why. All he knew was that he was something else, something that shouldn't even exist, at least not in the human world. Just the mere knowledge of his existence brought a cold chill down his spine.

He cringed at the memory he remembered way back at the alley that night, the red malicious eye, and the wave and scent of death around him. He felt the same ghastly feeling way back seven years ago –the great evil that annihilated his family and his whole village.

He sat up from his bed. He cupped his face and groaned.

"Is he connected to the one behind the murder of my village?" He asked himself. "Bu-but that can't be, he's just as old as I am. But his scent, I can't forget that scent."

He shook his head and turned to his wall clock.

 **4:00PM**

"Only thirty more minutes before Dawn's dismissal. I better get her from school." He stood up from his bed and grabbed a towel before heading to the bathroom.

"I better tell her about the dangers of that Paul guy and that we should stay away from him."

He sighed as he turned the knob of his bathroom door.

"Not that I'm in any position to tell her what to do after killing her childhood bestfriend."

…

" _Kenny! Run! You're too slow! Keep on running! Don't turn back!"_

 _Kenny panted and gasped for air, his pace getting slower and heavier._

" _Keep, keep, on running.." Exhaustion was slowly consuming his seven year old body._

 _The redhead girl ahead of Kenny stopped running and faced the direction where they just came from. He bumped into her._

" _There they are! The kids are there, over the clearing! After them!"_

 _He gripped on her shirt for balance. He was about to protest why she stopped running but he lacked air and his breaths came firsts before he could say any words._

 _She gripped the blue tear-shaped necklace hanging on her bare and fair neck. She shut her eyes closed before ripping it apart from her._

" _Here, take this. Use it to survive in the human world." She took his hand and placed the cold metallic object in his palm. She embraced him one last time and whispered words before she grabbed his shoulders and pushed him hard to the direction where they were running to. Kenny tipped a few steps before regaining his balance. "RUN! NOW!" She screamed at him. "I'll hold them back."_

" _Huh..? B-but, yo-you, ho-how?" He stuttered, tears swelling in his eyes. He couldn't believe that she was going to sacrifice herself for him._

" _There they are! Get them! Don't let any survivor escape!"_

" _NOW! KENNY! RUN GODDAMIT!"_

 _Kenny bit his lips before running as fast as he could into the dense and thick forest ahead. He heard noises, whips and lashes before a victorious yell was screamed. But he didn't bother turning around, he just kept on running and running until his feet felt like a hot car engine. Low lying branches left shallow scratches on his cheeks and arms as he continued running. His foot caught a root and he stumbled hard. He wheezed in pain but continued running immediately. No amount of physical pain could cloud the pain he felt in his chest._

 _He ran as far as he could with both of his red eyes closed, for his tears would just block his vision anyway._

 _The only thing that rang through his head was the last words she gave him._

" _Live, for me, no matter what. And I'll see you again. Definitely."_

…

He meekly took a step inside his bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror. He examined his eyes, turning red in a second then shifting back to black, shifting to red then back to black again.

"Just because I'm a devil doesn't mean I don't have the right to live. And as long as I live I will protect Dawn. I won't let the same things happen all over again."

"That Paul guy needs to leave."

* * *

 **A.N** : Again with the past revelations! And yes, Kenny is a devil and if you're wondering what he did to Barry (Dawn's supposed to be childhood bestfriend) I'll be revealing more details about it in the upcoming chapters because I was thinking of ways how devils in this story could be malicious and harmful to humans. And I thought "How about having the ability to erase one's existence?" So that's the idea I came up with. there will be more details about it.

Thanks again for the support! Please do read and review! That would be highly appreciated! :3


	5. Chapter Four

**A.N:** Hi guys! Big thanks to those who reviewed! It made me so happy! *gross sobbing* anyway, I'm really taking this story very slowly, I just don't know how to go about it completely yet,xD I could have posted this earlier this week if only I wasn't respawning, yes, life has been unkind to me just like to all of you but we all gotta carry on.

 **Aureillia** : Yas Cherry! Kenny did sort of kinda absorb him as well as his memories, I shall post more info about that kind of thing in the future chapters! :D Thank you! Your review spam surprised the hella out of me haha *grins like idiot* aside from ikarishipping, there'll be poke (YAS!), contest and oldrival, all having unique stories of their own but it's too soon yet for them to appear haha

 **Skitty13** : Skitty! Ah! Review bombs! I loved it! And yas! Kenny erased Barry's existence, devils are capable of it which I guess what makes them scary. Not much info yet though aha and I've prepared a lot of plots for this like crazy, I just hope they all go well,xD THANK YOU! And you'll soon find out that mysterious redhead :3

 **PH** : A little intense but it will get more intense once Paul's other distant 'brothers' and 'sisters' start appearing. Thank you!

 **Shadow Rosealine** : Yeah Kenny himself is confused,xD he killed/erased Barry accidentally and Dawn would never even know. But sorry though, no ikarishipping fluff yet, but I'll get there, the not-so-cliche way aha thank you! I think I might write one in the next chapter :3

 **QUEENSPELLER67** : Thanks for the review! And yes, Kenny is a devil, while Paul is a hybrid. There will be a lot of revelations in the upcoming chapters. Including how Kenny took Barry's existence. :3

 **LovelyLily13** : Well the next chapter is here!aha Sorry I had to kill Barry, but he'll be an important piece for the plot later on. Big thanks Bryanna!

I shall never own pokemon and it's characters.

* * *

 **Chapter Four – Shared Memories**

Paul slowly sat up from the sofa. It was already late in the afternoon.

He groaned as he felt his head. Not only that he'd been feeling more miserable than he used to, he'd been sleeping more often. Only getting out of the sofa to eat or drink or pee. Which was horrible and pathetic in a lot of ways.

He'd have to do something about his life.

On the bright side, ever since he started staying at this place for almost a week already, all those broken dreams and nightmares didn't occur to him anymore.

It was weird, he didn't know if he should be thankful for it or not. But he didn't mind. Not for now.

When he was about to fetch himself a glass of water, he heard a soft knocking on the door. He stopped going toward the small kitchen and went for the door instead. He found the familiar brunet standing with suppressed emotions across his eyes.

What were those emotions? Fear? Disgust? Loathing? Apathy? Paul had no idea. But such eyes were something he was already used to. Never foreign. Too familiar. Eyes that would even haunt him in his own thoughts.

Before Paul could say anything, Kenny cleared his throat.

Without even trying hard to think about it, Paul knew what he was going to talk about. Paul already knew what he was here for. The feeling of déjà vu was overwhelming.

"I need to talk to you." Kenny said.

…

"How are you gonna go about the reporting?" Dawn asked Zoey as they started walking along the center quadrangle of their school.

"Uh.." Zoey paused, cupping her chin. "Dawn you should just go ahead." She clicked her tongue and started sprinting the opposite way of where they were going.

The dismissal bell had rang a minute ago and while Dawn and Zoey were making their way toward the school gate, something made Zoey want to go back.

"What? But wh-" Before she could even finish asking, Zoey had already disappeared behind the benches of the right wing of the huge university.

When she was about to continue walking ahead, Zoey visibly popped her head. "I forgot something by the gymnasium! Bye!" Then she disappeared again. "Love lots!" She yelled after her.

Dawn chuckled as she started walking ahead by herself.

The cool and gentle atmosphere and breeze of the late afternoon brought her serenity. Ever since she was a child, Dawn had always love late afternoons. The special little time between morning and evening. Not too hot and not too cold. Not too bright and not too dark. It was the only time of the day where she could find peace and comfort in such a busy and troubled city. For her it was oasis.

Even though the bell had just rang, there were only a few students leaving school grounds. She guessed that they might still be in the library or still in their classrooms for it was still early.

"So going home isn't as exciting as it used to huh?" She asked herself in amusement.

As she walked along the grassy quadrangle, kicking a pebble in the process, some students were busy chatting with their own circle of friends. Some were by the benches laughing every now and then. Some were just sitting by the grass and answering homework, arguing then snickering.

Though she felt alienated, she smiled. She tucked some stray blue locks behind her ear.

She saw a pair of boys looking at a magazine under a row of pine trees. When a girl came to them they immediately hid it. They bickered for a while and their talking turned to a cop chase with the girl chasing the boys in irritation. It was such a playful sight.

"It sure does look good to have lots of friends." She muttered to herself.

She found someone familiar by the school gates. He was wearing an unbuttoned striped polo over his black shirt, a navy blue cargo pants with black sneakers. The wind gently swayed his auburn hair. His hair looked flaming red with the crimson afternoon rays of sun behind him. Striking.

His hands were in his pocket. He was standing anxiously, busy avoiding gazes from students coming in and out of the gates. If only he wasn't that anxious, he could have noticed some girls whispering about him, shooting glances at him every now and then.

Dawn smiled inwardly. She realized she was never alone in the first place.

"What a charmer." She gave the pebble a final kick before running up to him.

"Kenny! Hey!" She yelled shamelessly, giggling at the horrid expressions of the girls seeing him.

By the sound of his name being called, Kenny swung his head left and right. His anxiety died immediately after seeing Dawn. Her blue school skirt swayed along with her long ocean deep blue hair. They were straight and clipped at the sides, and even by just looking he could feel their softness and silkiness. She was waving her hand at him like a toddler, calling out his name. Needless to say, his heart skipped a beat. She was a sight he would never get used to seeing.

His mouth parched, he couldn't find words, more so his tongue. He went speechless at a stupidly degree.

"Hey!" She paused beside him. "Sorry for making you wait."

"I, I just got here." He caught his breath.

"Those girls totally dig you." Dawn elbowed him playfully, pointing to a couple of girls that got embarrassed and walked away.

"What? Why would they?!" He retorted. "And what are you saying!"

"Well if you weren't so busy being socially anxious then you could have noticed." She said in a matter of fact.

"You know how I do with people." He muttered embarrassingly. "But I want to fetch you from school."

She smiled at him even with the slight tint of red across her cheek.

"Thank you!" She then walked ahead of him.

It took a minute before Kenny could regain his composure.

'Dawn thanked me?' He thought. 'And Dawn blushed!'

He placed his hand over his chest in a lousy attempt of calming down his heartbeat.

"Hey wait up!" He soon followed her.

"Race you to the pharmacy!" Dawn started running ahead.

It took them a few minutes before they got into the Hearthrome Generic Pharmacy. The two teens ended up gasping for breath, they were both sweating but nonetheless they were both smiling from ear to ear. Kenny said that he would wait for her until her shift was over and they would go home together. Dawn smiled at him as she went inside and started her work.

While Kenny waited outside, he thought about what he and Paul talked earlier. It took him a lot of courage to. Truth be told, he was terrified of him. Terrified was even an understatement. Not because he was something of immediate danger, like Paul wanted to slaughter him. Paul was someone he found unnaturally uncanny and untrusting.

And what terrified Kenny the most about him was his scent. It wasn't disgusting or something rotten. In fact he smelled good, even too good that it was unearthly. It was fragrance beyond the realm of the living. It was aroma that instilled indescribable terror.

After that talk, when Paul closed the door, Kenny fell on his knees. He trembled badly. It took him a lot of minutes to stand back up. He never met someone like Paul, his presence was so terrifyingly imposing that it drained him of whatever energy he had.

Kenny could tell, Paul was something far more beyond than what Kenny himself was. But what could be more terrifying than a devil? Paul's image with his red glowing iris popped up in his mind, as well as those bodies that looked like life was sucked out from them.

'Only one of his eye is red. Does that mean he's a hybrid between human and devil? How could that be? He's not human, he's also not a devil. So what is he exactly?'

Asking him to leave was no doubt the best, not just for himself but for Dawn.

An hour later Dawn got out of the pharmacy for her quick dinner break. Kenny met up with her and they went for dinner by a nearby restaurant. They talked about random things and how Dawn was doing with her studies. Dawn replied with a lot of complains about projects and exams which Kenny found nothing really new. Their spoons and forks clinked with each other as they laughed.

"Hey Dawn." Dawn and Kenny were already heading back to the pharmacy so Dawn could finish her working shift. They were walking along the busy sidewalk of Hearthrome and it unintentionally brought that horrible memory one night which sparked a conversation he had wanted to talk to her about. He gulped noiselessly as Dawn looked at him, motioning him to continue talking.

"What do you really think about Paul?" He asked, averting his eyes from her knowing how he wanted him out from their lives whether it was something out of being selfish or protective.

Dawn got silent and didn't say anything.

"I know your intentions are good and you really want to help him, but.." Kenny trailed off. "Aren't you afraid of him?"

Their light and playful atmosphere slowly sunk.

"I don't really know." She heaved an awkward chuckle. "I don't know but the moment I saw him, I wanted to help him. I know it's strange, but, I, I can't explain it any better." She sighed.

"Ohh..okay."

Sensing the hurt in Kenny's reply, Dawn kept up the conversation. "Is this the reason why you've been acting distant lately? Are you scared of him?"

They've been walking for a couple of minutes already and Kenny found it weird how the pharmacy seemed farther than he remembered.

"Yes, I was, kinda, afraid of him." He was more afraid than he had admitted, but he couldn't tell it to her, not when he knew Paul was someone dangerous. Even more dangerous than himself, not that he wanted to do harm to anyone.

"I understand you Kenny, you're not someone who's quite, you know, social."

"No!" Kenny turned to her, his voice coming off more alarmed than expected. "It's not that. It's not that at all. It's different. You've seen those bodies right?"

"We're not even sure if he was the one responsible for that." Dawn replied thoughtfully.

"Who else could it be?" He asked. "They were dead. And how they died was unexplainable. Creepy. It freaked the hell out of me!"

"What if he was the only one who survived and those three were his friends?" Dawn was no longer looking at Kenny. She kept her look straight ahead. They had been talking about this the night they found him and brought him to her apartment room. She thought that they have cleared this out but she didn't know that Kenny was still going on about this.

"His eye was red, his right eye. I'm sure you saw it." He said.

"I did. But you said it yourself, devils don't exist today. They may have never existed." Dawn could see the huge 'Hearthrome Generic Pharmacy' heading glowing in red lights a few meters ahead. "I know you're concern about me Kenny." She curved her lips upward slightly. "But I'll let him decide when he wants to move out."

Kenny wanted to argue with her, but his voice fell short. He reminded himself of his own sin against her.

"Okay." Kenny replied, crestfallen, as Dawn went inside the glass doors of the pharmacy. Now Kenny felt bad that he had to make him leave without letting Dawn know. But deep inside, he knew he made the better choice. He was keeping her safe. But safe from _what_ actually?

A danger even he couldn't comprehend? A danger only he himself could feel? Everything had been crazy. And it got crazier the more he thought about it. He was now even contemplating if the decision he made was really to keep Dawn safe, or was just out of jealousy and selfishness.

And just like that, the day ended. He and Dawn exited the pharmacy exactly **10PM**.

Unlike earlier, they walked home in silence, it wasn't awkward. They walked beside each other in silence comfortably, letting all the city lights, car horns and clattering of shoes against the cemented pavement do the chatter for them both. Even though it was late at night, the city was busy as ever.

While walking, Dawn dwelled on her thoughts more deeply than she would have wanted. Ever since Kenny opened up the topic after dinner, Paul had never left her mind. She remember how she answered Kenny a while back 'I don't know but the moment I saw him, I wanted to help him.'

She didn't tell him the whole truth.

The moment she touched Paul that time when they had saved him in the alley, a spark rushed broken visions into her head like a cruel waterfall. Visions filled her head rapidly that she staggered and almost blacked out.

She couldn't make sense of everything she saw, they were too fast and too fragmented to make sense with. She could only distinguished a few of everything that came to her. She saw a castle that stood on top of a hill overlooking a village in front and a vast ocean behind, at the dark basement of the castle were seven rooms each with a child. No bed, no pillow, not even a mat. Not only that they were enclosed in a damp and cold stone-walled room with nothing but a metal bent platter for food, they were chained and blindfolded like pathological criminals. No lighting, their only source of light was a single small window barred with rusting metal rods. Some were crying, some were asleep, and all of them were tattooed with both fresh and old stitch marks and scars.

She didn't understand it, but she felt it – a suffering that was immeasurable.

The vision she saw that night hit her like a storm. She felt her chest collapse in immense sadness that tears fell from her eyes without even knowing it. And in that moment that happened quicker than a snap of a finger, she recognized that Paul was one of those seven suffering children.

He have six other brothers and sisters.

Remembering how his clothes were torn and tattered that day, Dawn thought that he might have escaped from that awful place. But could such a place even exist to begin with? It looked really old and something that existed from a very long time. She couldn't even recognize the place.

It was those broken visions that compelled her into taking care of him. Outrageous. She didn't tell Kenny any of it, she hardly believed it herself so she wasn't taking any chances of explaining it to him. She'd sound crazier than what really happened.

"Hey, we're here." Kenny's voice brought her back to reality.

"Oh, sorry." She replied meekly. She breathed out a lengthy exhale and composed herself in a second and went to the stairs. "See you in the morning Kenny. Good night." She went ahead of him, not even bothering for a reply.

When she unlocked her room, she found it odd that the lights were off. She felt for the light switch.

"Paul? Have you eaten anything yet?" She asked out loud. As the lights illuminated her little yet cozy room, everything was quiet and cold. No sign that anyone had been here since the past few hours at least.

"Paul? Are you-" Then she realized it. Paul was no longer around. And she was sure of it. She creased her nose.

His scent, his aroma. The weird scent she found strangely attractive about him. She couldn't smell it anymore. Her school bag dropped on the floor with a thud.

She sniffed a second time for another check. Nothing.

The cold breeze of the night swayed her curtain up. The wind howled past her ears and the dropping temperature made her shiver lightly.

 _I know you're concern about me. But I'll let him decide when he wants to move out._

"So he left already huh. How many days was it? Four? Five? So sudden." She chuckled weakly. She slowly locked the door behind her. She dragged herself to bed.

"Not even an advance notice or whatever. What an ungrateful jerk."

She crashed on her bed without even changing her clothes. Sadness of unknown origin had struck her horribly. And she didn't like it, not a single bit.

 _Mother! Do you really think my eye is beautiful?_

 _I am sorry! I killed a lot of people again! I swear I didn't mean it mother!_

 _Will I become a better super hero than my brothers and sisters?_

 _Why am I assigned to this kid? Subject7 is the most dangerous of the seven! He could kill us in an instant!_

 _Don't you think it's better this way Sister Cheryl? His presence would just destroy the celebration anyway._

 _I told you we should have never adopted that child! Look at his right eye! It's red! It's a manifestation of a devil! A monster!_

 _Everyone is scared of me, I get that. Just leave me alone._

 _B-but, I-I'm a-a m-mons-monster! Mons-monsters do-don't become ha-happy._

 _For my seventh birthday this year. I still wish for happiness._

Dawn gripped her pillow tightly. She muttered a lot of curses under her breath. She didn't know what pained her so much when he had only met him for a few days, they barely even had a decent conversation. And those painful visions wasn't even hers.

 _You just casually undressed me woman? Have you got no sense of decency?_

 _Thank you… really._

 _Can I stay here for a while? No, you don't need to do anything for me._

"I _did_ do nothing for you, I _did_ what you wanted. So at least you _could_ have told me in advance or left me a note. You really _are_ an ungrateful jerk!"

She sat up and balled her fists hard. She grabbed the nearest pillow and threw it across her room. The pillow hit the shelf beside her door and it brought the whole structure down like a lego construction. She huffed angrily and looked at the clock.

 **10:46PM**

"Don't think you can get away that easy you freaking freeloader. I wasn't even asking for anything in return, and you pay me with your sick and messed up memories? Without even any kind of explanation?! Is that how you repay my kindness?!"

She shot up from bed and glared to no one in particular.

"Unforgivable!"

She stormed out of her room thundering, slammed her door shut, hopped down the stairs and made her way furiously out of the apartment. She didn't know where to look for him or where he'd gone but she was too angry to care.

She put all her bet on her one and only lead – his aroma.

Insane.

* * *

 **A.N** : Chapter is done! Woo, late, as usual,xD if you guys are wondering about the whole aroma-thing about Paul, since he's a special kind of creature I decided to add a special kind of character to him, which is that aroma his body naturally emits. It kind of differentiate him from being a devil. And devils are the only one supposed to detect that smell. So why could Dawn smell him? And why would Kenny be afraid of his scent when Dawn found it attractive? PLOTS!

Reviews are highly appreciated! Thanks again! And have a great day :)

~Kicks!


	6. Chapter Five

**A.N** : Kicks here with another update! :D This update came a little bit earlier than the previous so it's good! Actually just two days earlier than the last,xD I was still a bit busy last week and school has never been nice with me nor with anybody else. School is a joke, ack. Still big thanks to those who reviewed :D

 **WM** : Well who wouldn't like to see a pissed off Dawn at Paul :D and thanks!

 **QUEENSPELLER67** : Actually I'll be making a lot of devils in this story, I think almost all major characters are. And nope, Paul isn't the only one, he's part of the seven hybrid devils :3 and thank you so so much for the support!

 **LovelyLily13** : She sure did find him, or him finding her haha big thanks for the support!

 **Shadow Rosealine** : I finally updated!bwahaha I really did a penguinshipping in the previous chapter and a bit of ikarishipping in this chappy, but no worries Kenny will have his own fair later on haha and yes Paul is half-devil and half-human but he is something else too, you will find out soon :D Thank you so much!

I will never own pokemon and its characters.

* * *

 **Chapter Five – Paul, the Harbinger of Death**

 _"I'm home!" Dawn's voice rang in her own room. She stepped in. "Hey Paul? Have you eaten already?" Dawn slowly locked the door behind her room. She took off her shoes and placed them on the rack beside her door. She stole a glance at the sofa and saw his resting figure._

 _She smiled to herself._

 _She turned off the big fluorescent lights and switched on the white floor lamp beside the sofa. The room soon became dimly illuminated, creating lengthy shadows of the shelves, stands, tables and other furniture. The atmosphere felt like the golden hour she has always adored._

 _She stretched her arm and rewarded herself a yawn._

 _She mentally said 'good night' to him and readied herself to bed. She noticed a peculiar scent when she was about to take a bath. She paused by the door frame of her bathroom and tried to locate where the smell came from._

 _She creased her nose, it wasn't strong, it was subtle but it was there, in her room._

 _She never smelled something like this before, she couldn't describe it exactly. One thing she was sure of was that she found it very attractive, strangely very attractive._

 _She paced around trying to locate the smell. And disbelief beached over her when she realized that it came from something beneath the sheets of blanket on her sofa. Well in this case, someone, beneath the sheets of blanket.  
_

 _She knelt beside him closer. She could feel his slow-paced and peaceful breathing underneath the sheets. She breathed in as well. She cursed mentally. It was indeed coming from him._

 _She thought a lot of things._

 _'Did he just take a shower? What kind of smell is this? I have never smelled anything like this before.'_

 _If it wasn't for the blanket in between them it would have been one hell of an awkward scenario. She took a sniff for the second time, inching her nose closer and closer._

 _'Damn he really does smell good! Seriously!'_

 _When Paul slightly shifted movements to his sides, it caught her by surprise that she fell on her back._

 _She had to cover her own mouth to suppress her squeaking._

 _She quickly got on her feet and trudged her way towards the bathroom steaming in embarrassment of what she had done._

 _'I'm such a weirdo! I can't believe I just did that!'_

…

Dawn stomped her feet hard in every step. She hardly heard anything but her own thoughts. She was slightly aware of the strange looks everyone was shooting at her but she wasn't bothered by it. She cursed and cursed and cursed to her heart's content.

She just couldn't believe it.

"How could he just leave like that?!" She thought out loud, earning more unwanted eyes around her.

"And that smell! God, what is up with that?!"

She wondered since when have she started noticing how he smelled. If her memories were correct and still perfectly sane as she hoped they still were, she started to notice his strange aroma the night after their first talk about her not having to do anything for him.

"Ugh, what a jerk."

She brisk walked around the city aimlessly for what it seemed to be like an hour already. And slowly by slowly, she was finally noticing how people have gradually disappeared within the vicinity.

She paused by a closed vegetable stall.

What entertained her now was silence, the eerie kind of silence.

The rows of faulty street lamps ahead of her blinked like series lights. But rather than enjoyment and pleasure, it brought her fear and anxiety.

Something inside her started to well up. A lump grew in her throat.

An unknown sense of dread slowly came to her. She unconsciously placed her hands in front of her chest, she never felt so small and insignificant in such a huge city. She never felt so open, naked and unguarded.

The silence was deafening and her heartbeat was ringing so loudly in her ears that it was just making her anxiety worse. She could feel her pulse race with each breath she took.

Her knees started to tremble badly.

She looked left and right frantically. No one. She tried calling for help but she couldn't even find her own voice.

"Ke-Kenny…" Dawn's voice cracked as few tears ran across her cheek. "Don't…leave me…all alone.."

Dawn stifled a sob.

…

 _"Hey! Are you here? Come out already!" A seven year old bluenette wandered throughout the forest at the outskirts of Twinleaf Town._

 _"I'm sorry already! Okay?" Dawn yelled. "I didn't mean to do it-" She tripped over a root and squeaked in pain. She rolled over and embraced her injured knee. "Ouch…" She whimpered._

 _The skin around her wound turned pale and purple. She hissed in pain._

 _She looked up when a droplet of water fell on her cheek._

" _Rain..?"_

 _She flinched at the boom of thunder afar. A few more droplets and it was already drizzling. Dawn's pink one piece dress was slowly getting darker and darker with each drop._

 _Panic gradually welled up in her._

 _Nobody else was around her, except for giant trees that made her feel like a limbless insect. She heard rustling behind bushes, and growls and hoots of different animals she couldn't even imagine what they looked like. But for one thing, she knew they would never help her. And with her current state, hoping that they would all leave her alone was her only choice._

 _She was so helpless that all she could do was hope._

 _It was crazy how she couldn't imagine how such creatures would look like but she could imagine their fangs, jagged teeth and claws, and how deep it would puncture her skin.  
_

 _"Somebody help.." Dawn cried as she curled up in a ball. "I'm scared.."_

 _Lightning flashed the skies and Dawn closed her eyes in anticipation for the thunder. She clasped her hands against her ears too hard but she didn't mind the pain it caused. Thunder boomed for the second time as drizzle became torrential rain._

 _"Mom.." She cried as rain slowly messed her blue ponytail._

 _The forest was too wide for a little girl like her. The trees loomed over her terrifyingly, she didn't know what monsters the bushes around her concealed, she was far away from home, there was no one that could help her and no one would even hear her plead for help. And the thing she feared the most, no one would even dare to find her and she would soon be forgotten.  
_

 _She closed her eyes and wailed. The rustling of leaves and the crashing of rain against them mocked her cry._

 _Every time she would try to scream for help, the rain would fall harder. As if it was conspiring against her, masking her cry for help._

 _No one was really going to save her._

 _Suddenly, rain drops stopped falling on her and she recognized someone's shadow. She looked up and saw the boy she was looking for earlier._

 _"Are you okay?" The brunet asked as he leaned the banana leaf over her closer, guarding the two of them from the heavy rain._

 _"Barr-" Dawn paused and blinked tears from her eyes. "Kenny!" She embraced him and cried harder. "I'm sorry I broke your favorite toy this morning! I'm sorry I got mad! I'm sorry for making you ran away. I'm sorry for hurting you." She clung on to him._

 _Kenny wrapped his free arm around her tiny waist. He bit his lip disdainfully._

 _"It's okay, I forgive you. Let's go home." He hesitated before continuing. "..Dawn."_

 _"What happened to your clothes? They are all torn. You are full of injuries. Are you okay?"_

 _"Yes… I am okay." He forced a smile at her._

…

"Kenny!" Dawn screamed. She dropped down on her knees and clamped her ears with her hands. She looked up and saw how buildings were unusually taller than she recognized. She could hardly see the top without snapping her neck looking up. Her only light source were the dysfunctional streetlamps, sparking off and on every now and then. Even the moon was nowhere to be seen among the thick cluster of clouds.

The vague feeling of danger with no physical evidence was painfully gnawing her skin.

"Help!" She cried again. But not even an echo came back to her. She was left alone and dead silence closed in on her making her feel ironically claustrophobic at such an open area. She couldn't dare move an inch. She sensed dread lurking from dark alleys all around her. Eyeing her, observing and watching how helplessly she called for help.

Her breathing became hoarse and came in deep breaths.

It was happening all over again – the panic attack she experienced ten years ago.

"I don't want to die…"

At the littlest of sound, Dawn whipped her head left and right. Her paranoia was making her senses sharper than the usual.

"Kenny! Are you there?!" She quickly stood on her feet and followed where the sound came from. The rustling of movements directed her in an alley that seemed veiled in the city. For someone who have lived in Hearthrome for three years already, she even hardly recognize the place.

Beyond the zone of darkness, Dawn could vaguely identify three persons standing next to each other.

"Kenny..?" Dawn approached carefully when a flash of red light momentarily blinded her. She staggered and took a step back.

"Shit!" A rough voice Dawn didn't recognize growled. "That girl saw us!"

"Oh man, oh man, we are done for!" Another man of middle age followed panicky. "What are we gonna do? We're not supposed to be seen!"

Dawn was still dazed by that flash, she still couldn't see even with her eyes open. She wandered her arms around aimlessly hoping she could grab on to anything. She leaned on the wall.

"How about we scourge her too?" The former voice suggested. "So we could leave with no evidence."

"Are you insane? We can't scourge two people in a lifetime. Only devils with higher power are capable of that!"

'Scourge? Devils?' Dawn's hazy vision slowly got back to normal. 'They're dangerous! I should get away from here!' Dawn panicked and ran away before even regaining her full vision.

Dawn exited the alley as fast as she could. She didn't understand a word they were talking about, but she was aware of the danger. And she swore there were three people she saw, but after that flash of red light, only two were left.

'Was that what they meant by 'scourge'?'

Dawn came to a halt when the same guy she saw earlier suddenly popped out of nowhere in front of her.

"Where do you think you're going missy?" The guy around late 20's snickered. He was wearing a dark blue polo shirt with ripped jeans. His ragged blond hair swayed with the cold wind of the night. His two irises glowed red threateningly.

Dawn heard shuffling behind her. She looked back and saw another guy with the same age as the one in front of her in plain white shirt and jeans. "After what you've just seen, I don't think we would just let you get away." His eyes glowing red as well.

The streetlamp beside Dawn sparked and went off.

"I swear I didn't see anything.." Her voice quivered. She gripped her skirt and her breathing came in heavy pants. "I swear…"

The two men closed in on her.

"Don't worry. We'll make this quick!" The one in front roared and pounced at her with his unusually pointed nails. Dawn embraced herself and closed her eyes in anticipation. "Kenny. Mom. Somebody help me, please."

"Urgh! Ack!"

A loud thud startled Dawn. She slowly opened her eyes and saw the man who charged at her earlier was now spread out lifelessly in front of her.

His eyes were white, his hair turned gray and he thinned unbelievably like a mummy.

Her jaw dropped open and her eyes widened at the quick murder she just missed.

A peculiar aroma drifted by her.

He was now here. Relief and fear battled inside her.

She whipped her head to the left and saw a silhouette draped in a piece of cloth. His dark figure was foreboding against the silence and emptiness of the area. He was standing still bathed by the darkness of the shadow of a tall building behind him. With his right iris glowing red, Dawn could feel her skin crawl at the sight.

Paul was displaying his chillingly inhuman qualities once again.

He mechanically turned his head to the other guy behind Dawn.

The guy fell on his back. He was shaking with fear.

"Thi-this c-can't be…" His voice cracked and trembled as he slowly crawled backwards in fear. "Yo-you ca-can't po-pos-possibly be re-real!"

Dawn cupped her mouth in deep apprehension.

 _I told you we should have never adopted that child! Look at his right eye! It's red! It's a manifestation of a devil! A monster!_

 _No blood, no injuries, their mouths are foaming and their eyes, it's all white. This is too bizarre, like something overwhelmed them to death._

 _Why am I assigned to this kid? Subject7 is the most dangerous of the seven! He could kill us in an instant!_

"Half-bloods are nothing but myth-" He choked and gasped for air. He rolled over to his side as foams formed in his mouth. He writhed in pain. He closed his eyes and Dawn could hear all his bone snap like crackers.

Dawn's expression mortified how he was even unable to scream for help in so much pain.

The man died shortly after a few seconds of struggling on the cold pavement.

Dawn swallowed hard.

Paul's dark silhouette slowly walked to her.

"Are you okay?" He asked her calmly. He took off the cloth over his head and offer his hand.

The clouds slowly dispersed behind him revealing a big and yellow full moon. His monstrous and murderous silhouette vanished too, revealing an average boy with his signature scowl.

His wonderful aroma gently spread around her.

His right iris was still pulsating crimson.

Dawn looked at him in awe that she couldn't explain. She tried to process everything that happened, scourge, devils, red eyes, his scent, and death. She blinked twice. Paul had saved her from those people. And she was pretty much sure they were devils and they just killed someone back at the alley.

'Devils really do exist..'

And a devil, a freaking devil was scared of Paul. And what Dawn got horrified even more was how Paul killed two guys without even doing anything.

'Half-blood.'

Paul looked at her with his usual bored look. His red eye gradually turning back to a beautiful lilac. He sighed.

"I leave you for one moment and you almost got yourself killed." He dejectedly felt his head. "And in your school uniform, still." He added, unamused. "Are you really supposed to be this troublesome?"

The moment she grabbed his hand she thought if the same thing would happen to her, dying in such a painful way. But he had saved her, she owed him her life. She thought that maybe she wouldn't mind dying if he killed her right off the bat.

"What are you really?" She asked, trying not to show that her knees were still trembling.

"You're welcome." He rolled his eyes. "A monster, apparently. Isn't it obvious?" He added monotonously.

"Thank you, uh, by the way, sorry." Dawn muttered as she followed him. "Mind if you could stay at my place for a couple more days?"

"You weren't scared? You are stupider than I thought." He replied. When Dawn didn't reply or gave any smart retort, he continued. "No, I can't. And besides, I don't do third wheeling."

"Oh, okay, wait. WHAT?!"

…

As Paul and Dawn disappeared by a corner. Kenny gripped his shirt in extreme anger and frustration.

He had been hiding and observing the whole thing by a far corner. He was supposed to be the one to save her but he got scared. Not just to the two devils that were much experienced in combat than him but also about Dawn figuring out about his true nature.

If he was going to protect her he'd have to unleash his devil side, he might not overpower them both unlike what Paul did but at least he'd be able to protect Dawn.

But he got scared instead and ended up watching the girl he loved got saved by Paul.

His heart ached with so much pain of regret and hatred toward himself.

He cursed a lot.

"After promising I would protect her, I got scared like shit!" He punched the wall beside him and his knuckles bled. "I was ready to jump in and protect her but my legs wouldn't damn move!" He repeatedly punch the wall in anguish hoping he could feel anything else other than the pain in his chest.

"I'm such a freaking wussy!"

Surrounded by the darkness of the sidewalk, his red eyes poured warm tears.

"Why can't I protect everyone that I love?! Why am I so weak?!" He kept on pounding the wall as the pain in his injuries all gradually went numb. The wall cracked a little.

He hung his shoulder, took a painful inhale and asked himself.

"Could I even risk being found out just to save her? That I'm not just a devil but the devil who scourged her bestfriend ten years ago? Am I strong enough to give up our friendship in order to save her life?"

As much as he hated to admit it, his resolve was weak.

He leaned his back against the wall and slid down.

"I must become stronger.."

* * *

 **A.N** : A little side note, devils are a little bit more physically powerful than humans, and faster too. And I've finally decided what to call that ability devils use to erase and replace humans, scourge or scourging. By scourging, devils can erase and replace (only to a certain degree) a person's existence in the world without any trace/evidences, even memories about him in other people and written records of him. It's the reason why Dawn would never remember Barry, and how Kenny sort of replaced Barry's presence in the world. But for scourging to work no other human must witness the process or else the scourged individual would just end up missing, rather than erased. More infos will be revealed. Please read and review :3 and good day!

Kicks!


	7. Chapter Six

**A.N** : Hallo guys :3 the update came very late, I've been living very poorly and lamely the past few weeks and I was out of town. My chronic depression kicked in and that's what I meant by living poorly and lamely. But let's be honest, nobody wants to hear rants about depression. The thing is I'm better, well for now, and I finally updated! :D Thank you for all the support and reviews! You guys really made my day huhu

 **ph** : You don't need to worry for Kenny, he definitely won't do anything bad, he's a good guy :3

 **QUEENSPELLER67** : Johanna isn't really their mother, I'll reveal more of it in the coming chapters :D and yes she is still alive and the septuplets are all hybrids (half-devil half-human).

 **LovelyLily13** : Dawn really is troublesome isn't she haha but for Kenny and Dawn, things will be tested between them in the coming chapters :3

 **ShadowRosealine** : You sure did mention it a lot haha thank you! And sorry for the super late update. And things will be getting intense!:D

Pokemon will never ever ever ever be mine.

* * *

 **Chapter Six – A Protected Promise**

Dawn was pretty sure something in him changed. When he came back and saved her last night, he wasn't that helpless and fearful boy she once met in a dark alley a week ago. The frame of his lips was firmer, the life of his eyes got colder and his expressions grew more turbid. He was now a darker version of his former self. Or at least darker than what Dawn had originally perceived of him.

She deduced that something must have happened to him at such a little span of time why he had grown more remote.

If it wasn't for his cold and apathetic demeanor, she could have slept soundly that night without questions murdering the back of her head. She didn't know why he would immediately dismiss her off and give her the cold shoulder. He was acting like her mother, which she hated very much.

Why wouldn't anyone tell her anything about what she actually wanted to know? She didn't know whether she really was that forbidden to know what really mattered to her or she was just worrying at the wrong things.

Her head was still swimming with a lot of questions pending to be answered. With a heavy sigh, she decided to push those thoughts away for now and focused on her current predicament – Advance Algebra, first subject of the morning.

Paul said earlier that he had to go somewhere and told her to trust him that he would come back. And honestly, no matter how much Dawn wanted to know more about him and those broken visions he gave her, she didn't want poking her nose forcefully at anything personal. She thought better to be patient at those answers.

She might not have them now, but she would, eventually and hopefully.

She slowly closed the door of her apartment. The morning was still quite young. There was no way for her to be late. The knob clicked. She tapped her blue skirt, straighten the blue sailor ribbon on her chest, checked on her white sailor uniform for some unnoticed stains, held onto the straps of her knapsack and finally, she took a quick check of herself in her pocket mirror. Her azure hair was clipped at the side like the usual. Perfect.

She wanted to see Kenny before she would go to school.

She stopped by his room and knocked on the door.

"Kenny? Are you there?" She called out. She knocked again. Perhaps he was still sleeping.

The door creaked open when she was about to turn away.

"Good morning." Kenny greeted, panting. He was shirtless wearing only his red jogging pants and a face cloth over his shoulder.

He was sweating.

"Sorry I couldn't answer immediately." He continued. "I was, err, busy…" He trailed off.

Dawn gave him an amused look.

"You're working out?!" Disbelief washed over her. "Kenny that's great!" She exclaimed.

He laughed sheepishly in response. "Thank you."

"But why though?" She faced him.

Kenny opened the door fully and leaned on the door frame. He was awkwardly touching his auburn hair in embarrassment. "Nothing, uhh, nothing in particular."

"Well just don't overdo it okay?" Dawn chuckled lightly. "You don't want fishing a lot of girls for that."

They both laughed together.

"Oh god! I took too much time!" She flipped by her sudden realization and raced towards the stairs. She paused and looked back at him.

"See you after school?"

"I'll see you after school Dawn." He smiled.

She grinned before running down the stairs.

He looked down and his bittersweet smile faltered. He closed back the door and resumed working out. He threw the cloth over the sofa and laid on the floor.

He pulled his knees and started pull ups.

"One, two, three, four, five…"

'I'll protect her this time, even if I had to kill my own kind or other human beings. I'll protect her.'

"Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen…"

'She's all that matters to me.'

"Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three…"

'I need to be stronger. Stronger than those two devils last night. Stronger than the monster that killed my family and everyone in my village. Stronger than Paul. Stronger than anything!'

"Twenty-seven…Twenty-eight…" Kenny's strength was dying. "Twenty-nine….Thirty…" He unbuckled his knees and spread his arms flat on the floor. He gasped for breath. He felt a few beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.

…

 _"Good morning Barry!" Dawn's seven-year old cheerful voice caught the blond boy by surprise. He yelped and accidentally dropped his soldier action figure._

 _"Oh Dawn, morning." He picked the figure up from the sandy grounds of the sandbox of the playground._

 _"What are you doing?" She asked and peeked over his shoulders._

 _"I'm training Sergeant Stone here for a war operation that would commence by daybreak." Barry answered with a modulated voice. He hardly looked at her._

 _"Can I play?" Dawn asked excitedly._

 _"Well..." He answered unsurely to which Dawn pouted._

 _"All you care about are your toys!" She stuck her tongue out and walked away._

…

Kenny knew that Dawn had a child-crush on Barry. It was the reason why she broke his action figures at that time which made him run away and got lost in the forest outside of Twinleaf, their home town.

He'd know of course, he had scourged him. Absorbing his identity allowed him to register Barry's own memory into his. He replaced him in his family as well as Dawn's bestfriend. Despite without knowing how he did it, the scourging was very successful. He was able to erase him completely. Even Barry's name in all written documents was replaced by Kenny's name. It enabled him to blend perfectly in the human society.

He could still remember clearly the scourging process how he slowly absorbed Barry's existence and identity into his. But unexpectedly, instead of having Dawn's crush transferred to him, Dawn simply lost that crush. He didn't know why. It confused him because Barry's family still viewed Kenny like he was their son that the relationship was still there.

The only theory Kenny had thought why Dawn's crush wasn't transferred to him was because there wasn't any proper establishment of it. The reason why Barry's family took care of him like Kenny really was Barry was because the strong and proven connection of being their child. He actually had the title of being their son.

A mere crush was just too weak and fleeting to be transferred. She simply outgrew that crush.

He thought that it was a good thing at first, because attachment especially towards humans was forbidden for devils. Devils weren't supposed to act in cooperation with humans, much more fall in love with them. And the same applies to humans. It was a given rule of nature.

That was why they were given two separate worlds to live – the human world and the Netherworld. For both beings, betrayal against his own race for the other would be the greatest sin to commit. To fall in love with the opposing race would bear a mortal curse, a mortal price.

But whatever curse that would be, Kenny wasn't afraid. As long as he could just protect Dawn.

He tried continuing his pull ups, but he was too tired already. He could feel his muscles twitching in fatigue. He could barely move his arms and his abdomen ached.

"I'm so weak…"

He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. He opened them red and he could feel renewed strength surged in him.

"Thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five…" He was doing it more easily and fluidly that he had started.

His determination was stronger than before, stronger than last night. He had steeled his resolve. He _needed_ to steel his resolve.

"Seventy-two, seventy-three, seventy-four, seventy-five…"

Kenny was determined to work everything out, to strengthen himself physically and mentally to protect her. To avoid doing the same mistakes all over again.

And more importantly, to make her notice his feelings.

"One hundred, one hundred one, one hundred two, one hundred three…"

And for that, he was far more than willing to endure a lot of pain. Even if it would mean to bear a curse that would last more than his lifetime or cost his life.

"One hundred forty-four, one hundred forty-five, one hundred forty-six, one hundred forty-seven…"

* * *

The cold and gentle breeze of early Wednesday morning drafted by Paul. It brushed past his purple hair as sunlight tapped his skin playfully. He was staying on the rooftop of the apartment complex meditating for what it seemed to be more than an hour already. He was wearing a white sleeveless shirt and black shorts.

He decided to do this every morning in attempt to control his curse. He knew better now. All those that adopted him that died were his entire fault. He was an immature crybaby for believing otherwise.

He really was a killing machine. He was living a lie and there was no other way around than to believe and control it.

If only he was able to accept that earlier he would have avoided such unfortunate events which only fueled his nightmares. Things could have been different now. He viewed his thirst for family as something trivial now. He was never going to have such a thing.

Not to a monster that makes killing as easy as breathing. He had to at least control it.

He surely knew better now. Happiness was never something you'd wish for. It's something you'd work hard for. And sometimes people just aren't meant to be happy, but just to be contented. Paul was one of them, to be content with loneliness. For him, seeing the people he cared about in safe hands was all the reason he needed to live.

He made the right choice to leave his foster home. He was only being a burden to Sister Cheryl and her own happiness.

He slowly opened his eyes and stood up.

By his far right, he saw a young plant sapling in a pot placed at the edge of the complex. It basked in raw sunlight. Surprisingly the more he looked at it the less healthy it seemed to get. Its leaves went pale and brown and they fell one by one. It wilted as if the soil had absorbed it.

In less than a minute, what was left was an unrecognizable carcass of a sapling.

By the reflection of himself on a water tank in front of him, he could vividly see his own right crimson iris.

He cursed.

"I still can't control it yet, damn it."

Even though it wasn't his first time seeing his eye red, it still gave him that implausible feeling. His head throbbed horribly and he placed a hand over his eye. He was tempted to pull it out and maybe it might disable his curse.

But he knew it wouldn't, for he had tried it already.

* * *

"Hey Dawn, it really makes me happy you know." Zoey said as they walked along the center quadrangle of the school.

"About what?" She asked.

"That you might be smarter than me at mostly anything, yet you're so helpless without me in Advance Algebra." Zoey laughed.

"Hey, hey! I'll get better at it!" Dawn chastised. "You just watch!"

"Oh sure, it's not like I haven't heard you say that before, pffft."

"I really hate you sometime." Dawn sighed. "I sometime question myself if you're really my bestfriend, you know?"

Zoey playfully wrapped her arms around Dawn's waist. "At least I'm giving you my lessons for free. That's how much I love you!"

"Whatever you say Miss Mathemagician." Dawn chuckled.

The dismissal bell rang a few minutes ago. Dawn and Zoey were already making their way toward the school gate.

"Oh Dawn sorry again! I completely forgot that Coach needed me to be at the gym this afternoon!" She panicked and started running back.

"You've been ditching me recently Zoey!" Dawn screamed.

"I'm really sorry! I still love you though! See ya tomorrow!" And she disappeared.

Dawn chuckled at Zoey's clumsiness and laxness. It gave her a sense of comfort and amusement that they have something similar at some point.

And then elation crashed over her when she saw Kenny waiting for her at the school gate in his usual get-up. She smiled to herself and embarrassingly called out his name again, gaining weird looks of other students at her.

But she didn't care.

* * *

Zoey anxiously hid her hands in her pockets and slowly walked toward the Dean's room at the topmost floor of the central building. She felt bad for lying to Dawn about late club activities.

She checked her watch.

 **5:00PM.**

She bit the inside of her cheeks in anxiety.

Professor Will, the dean of the university, had been arranging a lot of meetings with her lately.

She breathed in deeply as her pulse started to race. She could feel her heartbeat ringing in her ears.

They weren't exactly meetings despite what Will termed them himself. For Zoey, they were more of threats than just mere meetings or arrangements. The only thing a monster like him was capable of doing.

The knob turned slowly and the cold lemon scented air gushed against her like a wave. Her stomach churned uncomfortably.

She hated that scent.

"You haven't scourged Miss Berlitz yet, have you?" The familiar voice of Mr. Will rang around the silent and enclosed room. Aside from her rampaging heartbeat out of anxiety, the only noise she could hear was the hum of the air conditioner.

As much as how she hated him, she was deeply afraid of Will. He wasn't just any typical devil.

The knob clicked closed behind her.

In front of her was a large glass table with piles of papers and folders stacked neatly beside each other on top, beside the table was an empty small grey plastic trash bin. The shutters of his windows were all closed. The room had low visibility which increased her anxiety.

Will sat on his huge office chair facing the opposite side. He wasn't even facing her yet his mere presence was enough to make Zoey's knees turn jelly. Zoey knew well enough that she didn't need to see his face to know how furious he was at her right now.

His chair made a squeak as he spun around and faced her. Her purple hair traced the corners of his cheeks. He was wearing his usual suit, magenta colored slacks and long-sleeve polo topped with a black vest with two pairs of golden colored buttons at the center.

And his signature black-framed masquerade mask covering his eyes.

Masks were supposed to hide faces for ambiguity. But his mask was more than just for ambiguity, it made him look more malicious and dangerous. His mask furthermore highlighted his pathological insanity.

Just his mere mask was enough to make any devil who knew his name run in fear.

Zoey tried her best to overcome her fear with hatred toward the monster that completely annihilated his family and village ten years ago.

"N-no, sir-"

"I've grown tired of that response! Have you even tried doing it Nozomi?!" Will enraged, whipping his left gloved hand for emphasis.

"I'm just waiting for the perfect timing-"

"You imbecile! Almost all of the students and staff here have been scourged already and you here are delaying my plan! You useless thrash!" He pushed the stacked papers off of his table in deep frustration.

Zoey could faintly see a tiny glow of red behind his mask.

His eyes were glowing cerise.

She suddenly felt something taking a strong grip of her neck. Will was using his ability at her, again. As she choked for air, she could feel her feet lose hold of the floor. She struggled and kept on kicking.

She helplessly struggled like a decapitated insect in midair.

"Don't tell me you're getting attached to this human girl?" Will asked with voice laced with malice. "It's been a semester already and you still haven't scourged her yet! And it was the only thing I assigned you to do! How useless can you be?!"

Zoey didn't know what kind of force he was using against her. She felt something strangling her but she couldn't touch it no matter how many times she had swatted her arms around her neck. He was choking her just by mere looking. She tried looking around and realized that her head had almost touched the ceiling. Her lack of oxygen blurred her vision and she could barely see him smirking sadistically at her suffering.

Just a second later she would have fallen out of consciousness that she fell on the floor with a thud. She crouched down and gasped for air.

"N-no..." She coughed. "I-I'm not... I'm not attached to her…" She coughed out her words.

"THEN DO IT IMMEDIATELY!" He yelled at her. "You're really making me regret for keeping you alive all this time Nozomi." He hissed. "I should have killed you together with your pathetic village and parents ten years ago!"

"I'll be on a leave starting tomorrow to meet someone. I'll be back by the end of this week and if you can't scourge or kill Berlitz by then, I'll gladly do it myself." Will finished as he rotated his seat again. "And you won't like what I'll do with you."

"Now scam!"

She gritted her teeth and balled her fist.

She quickly got up and closed the door behind her.

"Damn Will and his delusions. What is he thinking of making an army of devils out from this school? And scourging poor students! What a psycho!"

 _What I mean is that, don't you feel out of place here? Like you're some sort of stranger, despite knowing all of them for three years you just feel like you've known them just now._

"Even Dawn has started to notice the changes. Abusing the power to scourge to create an army for himself. Insane!"

She trudged down the stairs quickly and touched her neck, which now had red imprints from the earlier struggle. She was sure Will had the ability of moving things around at a far distance without touching them. What she didn't know though was the full extent of his ability as a devil. She had witnessed it once when Will was able to overpower her whole village with just a few men. She could hardly remember for she was still young at that time but he was more than terrifying in full power. Will was surely on a different and unique class of devils, far different from her and all the other devils she had encountered.

Unlike most devils which basically relied on speed and power, Will has a unique ability.

Will was definitely one of the strongest devils she knew, if not the strongest.

Zoey bit her lips that it started to bleed.

"I surely can't defeat him in combat. He's too powerful for me. I just need to stay perfectly in my plan. Make him think that I'm on his side and by the time of his departure tomorrow I will assassinate all of his four henchmen one by one. I could probably kill them by myself." Zoey bared her fangs in anticipation of her plan for tomorrow. "And I'll kill Will by surprise when he gets back. He can never get away from murdering my family and my village. I'll get my revenge."

When she was outside of the school main building, Zoey ran ahead to the gates and exited the school in a pained expression. The darkness of the night slowly covered the sky like a blanket as the awful screams of nightly scourging in the school slowly got out of her earshot.

"Will needs to die."

"Wait for me Kenny. I'll see you real soon. Just like what I promised you. Just a little more time and I will look for you. We'll be together again."

* * *

 **A.N** : Who guessed that the redhead in Kenny's memory was Zoey? You all probably did,xD but yes I've planned it all along that it had to be her for plot purposes. And also yes, when Paul said that he tried taking out his eye, he really DID take out his eye. I will reveal more of it soon. Zoey is gonna go full badass mode in the upcoming chapters. Friendship, promises and memories will be tested. And if you're wondering why I used Will (the psychic type elite four of Gen II) is because of his sort of psychic ability, more of it will be revealed as well as the past between him, Zoey and Kenny. And I find his getup really cool! I'll be creating his character the merciless-sadistic antagonist which is very cliche. I can't promise anything about the next update, but hopefully it would be sooner than later.

Once again big thanks to all those who reviewed and read this story. It really makes me happy! :D

Kicks!


	8. Chapter Seven

**A.N:** Hey guys! Kicks here with another update! I hope you're all enjoying the story so far, it's kinda one of those fics with a lot of backstories. So I hope you all won't mind the flashbacks every now and then, they are the framework of my plot. As the title of the chapter suggests, this will reveal Zoey's past including her relationship with Kenny and her family.

 **WeightlessMagic** : Yep, yep, he did! I will reveal about it and what happened and how and why at a later chapter :3

 **QUEENSPELLER67** : Yes, Kenny's dad is Palmer but I don't think I'll be using him in this story, but I can't say for sure. And also yes, Cheryl is that stat trainer with long green hair, she looks so modest for me so I thought the role would fit her more aha. She will be an important piece for Paul's character development. Zoey believes that Kenny made it out safely that's why she's gonna look for him once she's done with her mission. I find Will cool, so I'm gonna make him into a cool antagonist. And thank you for enjoying the story so far! Cheers!

 **ShadowRosealine** : Yep! I try to update as often I can, it's hard but I keep trying :3 Yes Kenny remember Zoey pretty much, but he believes that she died during that time of their escape. Well Dawn doesn't feel much different towards Kenny after meeting Paul. I think I need to expound that matter, thanks for the question! And yes there'll be ikarishipping moments, not just now but I promise. This fic is after all an ikarishipping fic. It's one of those stories that are ironic, it features a main ship but doesn't show it that much in the story. But rest assured, the whole plot of the story will revolve around Dawn and Paul :) we'll just have to wait. Thank you for the support! :D

 **MespiritAngel** : G'aaawe thank you for the patience and support! I highly appreciate it :D

 **LovelyLily13** : By now I think Dawn is the only human left in that school haha, that is indeed creepy! Nah Paul had his complete pair of eyes, it grew or recovered or whatsoever haha I will explain it at a later chappy :D I know there are a lot of questions, especially about what happened to Paul's 'brothers and sisters' but we'll answer all of them one by one. Thanks for the review and support! :D

Onwards on the next chapter! Pokemon will never be mine, not that I mind.

* * *

 **Chapter Seven – Zoey Nozomi**

 _"Hey Dad!" A seven year old redhead came crashing through the kitchen backdoor. Zoey's arms were stacked with clothes. She was so little that she was barely visible behind the hill of clothes on her arms. "The clothes had dried!" Her gleeful voice chimed around their cozy little kitchen._

 _Her dad was doing the dishes. He turned around and smiled at her. "You place them on the sofa and I'll take care of them later."_

 _She headed toward their sitting room, walking carefully to avoid bumping into anything._

 _"Can I go play outside now?" She grinned, to which her bright red eyes glowed in happiness._

 _"Sure." Her dad answered. "Just get back here before it gets dark."_

 _She sprinted outside. Clean and gentle mountain air swept her red spiky hair as she raced through fields of grass carelessly. Her black once piece dress danced with the breeze. Grasshoppers leaped out of the tiles of grass where her foot would step one after the other. She could see yellow and white butterflies around hovering over hordes of daisies._

 _She had always loved how this place was like a fairy tale wonderland out from a book._

 _She finally stopped at her destination at the top of a hill that overlooked their little village. The orange sun was setting at the far horizon painting the sky in beautiful hues of red, yellow and orange like the flame at their fireplace. Clouds above her slowly fleeted with each other like a herd of grazing animals. They looked so close to the ground that she could almost touch them._

 _She sat down on the comfortable grass and crossed her legs. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath._

 _She jolt her eyes open at a rustling of grass behind her. She looked back and saw Kenny, her childhood friend and neighbor._

 _He was wearing a simple blue shirt and dirty grey short. He shot a grin at her and walked forward. He sat down beside her and together they watched how the sun slowly sunk at the far horizon._

 _The place was their secret haven. Nobody else in the village knew about the place, only Zoey and Kenny. Everything about the place was perfect, a wide unraveling sea of stars above, fleeting lights of the village below that looked like tiny fireflies, cool and calming mountain breeze and chirping of birds and cicadas. Zoey's words couldn't explain enough how the place was more than perfect._

 _It was a peaceful and beautiful springtime with her and Kenny alone in comfortable silence._

 _"Hey Zoey." Kenny spoke. "Are you still thinking about it? About what you said to me yesterday?"_

 _Zoey's eyes lit up. "Yes! Of course!" She looked at him._

 _Kenny's red eyes suddenly glowed with worry. "But we're not supposed to interact with humans. Why would you want to go to their world?"_

 _"It's not like I want to leave this village and everyone in it silly!" Zoey playfully smacked his shoulders. "I'm just interested in the human world. That's all. I mean they can't be that bad, right?"_

 _"Mom said humans hate us." Kenny said thoughtfully. "She kept on reminding me that after the last war, we should never resurface and try to live as peaceful as we can in our own world. The reason we lost the last war was because of our greed."_

 _"I know." She replied with a saddened expression. "Most devils hold deep hatred towards them from the loss of the last war. I don't think there would ever be peace." Her eyes lit up for a second time. "But you know what? They say that our world is the same as the human world! Isn't that interesting? Like we live here in Twinleaf Town and the human world has their own Twinleaf Town! I wonder who lives there. It's like an alternate dimension!"_

 _Kenny laughed heartedly. "You're too enthusiastic for your own good you know." He elbowed her playfully. "And besides, I wouldn't want you to go there. I would end up lonely."_

 _"Duh!" Zoey rolled her eyes. "You come with me of course! Our family holds no grudge against humans. Maybe not all humans hate our kind. And who knows! Maybe we'll be the first devil to establish peace! And we would be remembered forever! Our names written in books and we would be called heroes and then we wou-"_

 _Kenny playfully poked her forehead. "Hey that hurt." Zoey pouted at the slight throbbing pain._

 _"You really are too enthusiastic and hopeful for your own good."_

 _She stuck her tongue at him. "We can do anything as long as we're together!"_

 _Kenny's breath got caught in his throat. He almost choked at the air he breathed in. He was so surprised at what she just said that it took him a couple of seconds to respond._

 _He smiled as he raised his fist at her. "Why of course. We're partners!"_

 _Zoey grinned and bumped her fist with his. "Partners!"_

 _They both stared at each other's eyes, red and filled with innocence, serenity and hope._

 _The sun had finally disappeared as stars slowly showed one by one among the clouds in the sky. Both of them stretched their legs and laid flat on the grass. They formed constellations, shared half-baked jokes to which they would laugh at occasionally._

 _Zoey remembered what her father had said earlier, but she didn't care. She was sure a little more time with Kenny and his half-baked jokes wouldn't be so bad._

* * *

 _Later that night, Zoey kept on turning on her bed. She felt uncomfortable. She didn't know if it was just her or it really was noisy outside._

 _"Zoey!" She slowly woke up to a shaking. It was in the middle of the night and she felt like someone had glued her eyelids shut. "Zoey wake up!" Someone was shaking her awake._

 _"Mother?" She spoke slowly, slowly making sense of her surroundings. "It's kinda noisy.." She said groggily, rubbing her eyes._

 _"Get up! Hurry!" Her mother harshly whispered. She quickly dragged Zoey off of her bed and made her slipped into her slippers._

 _Zoey didn't know what was going on. She was still in a daze from sleep. But as more seconds passed by, she realized that it really wasn't just her. There were a lot of screaming and crashing outside. And fire, houses were on fire._

 _Her eyes widened at the sudden realization. She looked at her mother, who was just a terrified as her._

 _Her mother knelt down and held her tiny hands._

 _"Listen to me Zoey, listen carefully." Her mother whispered. "Devils from the higher council are here and they're after everyone." Her mother paused and gulped. "We'll take the back door and ran away from here. You understand me?"_

 _Honestly, Zoey didn't understand what her mother was saying. She wasn't registering anything she had said, she was lost in her mother's red eyes filled with tears of fear. She was left speechless. If the higher council was really here then it could only mean something disastrous for peace-loving devils like them._

 _"What about father? What is really going on outside? What does the council want from us?" Zoey's voice trembled._

 _"Your father is protecting us, don't worry about him. He loves us so much. We just need to stay safe and get away from here. Okay?"_

 _Her mother hugged her tight in a split second before she took her hand and ran towards the kitchen. She twisted the knob and opened the door._

 _But right before them was a huge bearded man, his right eye was twitching. He was only wearing black shorts that were torn and ripped. He had a hairy and bulky body full of scars. He had two huge and long horns on his head that grew up then backwards reaching his lower back. His claws were pointed and blood dripped from them like candle wax. His mouth was wide open revealing an array of jagged teeth all over the place. His tongue drooped like it was his tie. He looked down on them and his red twitching eyes glowed in delight. They were so small compared to the beast in front of them._

 _He snatched Zoey's mother by the neck swiftly. He pulled her closer and sniffed her neck, his pointed nails dug on her mother's neck that little blood dropped._

" _Where do you think you're going? AHA-HAHA" He snarled and laughed maniacally with his rough vibrant greasy voice. Her mother writhed in pain from his grasp._

 _Zoey lunged at the monster. "Let go of my mother you monster!" She kept on pounding his knees. He really was huge. Zoey's effort of hitting him was nothing more than meaningless. But she wasn't scared of him. If there was anything she would be scared of, then it would be the fate of her mother from the monster's grasp._

 _He looked down at her and growled in annoyance._

" _Annoying insect!" He kicked Zoey right in her abdomen causing her to fly back toward the kitchen. She crashed against the chairs and tables. She cried in pain before falling out of consciousness immediately._

" _Hah-hah ahaha, that's what you get fo- ack!" Zoey's mother held on the monster's muscular wrist, pulled herself up and gave him a full roundhouse kick on the head._

 _He instantly let go of her as he staggered from the blow._

 _She immediately ran back inside and tended to her daughter._

 _Her hands were shaking as she carried Zoey by her hands. Zoey's breathing was slow and raspy. She lifted Zoey's shirt and saw a purple bruise that almost covered her whole stomach area. She had never felt so much anger before. But she forced it all inside. Zoey's safety would have to come first._

" _That kick, you broke my neck woman!" She turned around and saw him again by the door. His head was crooked sideway. He held his head and snapped it back to place like it was just nothing. "I shall enjoy tearing your limbs apart! HAHA-AHA"_

 _He flew inside and missed them. He crashed on the utensil rack, causing a few heavy boxes filled with ceramic plates and cups to fall on him. Still with Zoey in her arms, she rolled over to the side and ran for the door. She was about to get out when something got hold of her leg. She fell forward and dropped Zoey._

" _You're not getting away!" His lengthy arm gripped her leg. He was still trapped from the boxes._

 _She and Zoey both hissed in pain. He pulled her and she kicked his finger with her free leg. She kicked it for the second time before he let go. She ran towards Zoey and carried her again._

 _The noises around them were slowly dying, escape was impossible for the two of them. It was only a moment of time before anyone else would come over and they'll both die. She raised Zoey's shirt and placed a hand over her injury. A faint red glow emerged and the bruise slowly disappeared._

 _Zoey gasped for breath and craved for air as if she had just drowned._

" _Zoey." Her mother began. "Remember the time you told me you wanted to go to the human world? How much you wanted to meet humans?" She asked. She didn't wait for her to reply. "Take this." She removed her blue tear-shaped pendant and placed it over her daughter's neck._

" _You're giving me your birth stone?"_

 _The monster trapped inside their kitchen was growling madly. Any second and he would be free and their chance of escape would die. She wasted no time answering her._

" _Humans might call us monsters, but just because we are doesn't mean we don't have a heart. I know that there are kind humans out there just like there are kind devils out here. Use the birth stone and survive. I love you. Your father and I love you."_

 _She pushed her forward as the monster from their kitchen flew out of the door._

 _He huffed angrily, his breathing was very apparent._

" _YOU ARE REALLY GONNA GET IT THIS TIME!"_

" _ZOEY RUN!" Her mother commanded as Zoey ran straight to the forest in tears._

" _How noble.." He mocked her and sneered. "For that you deserve a slow and painful death. AHA-HAHA-AHAHA"_

 _She closed her eyes. She ripped the sleeves of her night blouse, threw away her slippers and tied her long red flowing hair in a tight ponytail. Once she opened her eyes, they weren't just red, it grew slits like a cat. Her nails and teeth grew longer. Her expression grew merciless and deadly._

" _I'll teach you not to mess with a mother."_

 _Zoey tried not to look back. She didn't stumble to any low-lying branches or stray pebbles along the way. The flames of the village were so bright behind her that it lighted her path like daybreak. She tried not to cry at the current unspeakable situation. It was too horrible. She didn't even know what the higher council wanted from them or why they were doing this._

 _Along the way, she bumped into Kenny who was also trying to escape. He wasn't doing any better, he was bawling. Just like her, Kenny's parents sacrificed themselves for his life. She wanted to break down and cry too but if she would, then they would catch up and they would be caught, the lives of their parents would be in vain._

 _She tugged on his arms and pulled him forward. They ran away together. But where to exactly? Zoey didn't know, just anywhere away from the higher council and away from the burning village._

 _She gripped the birth stone hanging on her neck._

 _Just anywhere safe._

 _But they were just kids. They were bound to get tired easily. A few men were already on their tail when they were meters away from the village. Zoey got scared and terrified. Not only that they found her and Kenny, they also really want no survivors to escape._

 _"_ _Kenny! Run! You're too slow! Keep on running! Don't turn back!"_

 _Kenny panted and gasped for air, his pace getting slower and heavier._

 _"_ _Keep, keep, on running.." Exhaustion was slowly consuming his seven year old body. They have been running for more than an hour already._

 _Zoey immediately stopped running and faced the direction where they just came from. Kenny, who ran behind her, bumped into her._

 _"_ _There they are! The kids are there, over the clearing! After them!"_

 _Zoey felt his grip on her shirt as he leaned on her for balance. Kenny was about to protest why she stopped running but he lacked air and his breaths came first before he could say any words._

 _She gripped the blue tear-shaped necklace hanging on her bare and fair neck. She shut her eyes closed before ripping it apart from her._

 _ **Humans might call us monsters, but just because we are doesn't mean we don't have a heart. I know that there are kind humans out there just like there are kind devils out here. Use the birth stone and survive. I love you. Your father and I love you.**_

 _"_ _Here, take this. Use it to survive in the human world." She took his hand and placed the cold metallic object in his palm. She embraced him one last time._ _"_ _Live, for me, no matter what. And I'll see you again. Definitely." She whispered before she grabbed his shoulders and pushed him hard to the direction where they were running to. Kenny tipped a few steps before regaining his balance. "RUN! NOW!" She screamed at him. "I'll hold them back."_

 _"_ _Huh..? B-but, yo-you, ho-how?" He stuttered, tears swelling in his eyes. He couldn't believe that Zoey was going to sacrifice herself for him._

 _But Zoey had already made up her mind. He wanted to find out what was going on with the village and the higher council._

 _"_ _There they are! Get them! Don't let any survivor escape!"_

 _"_ _NOW! KENNY! RUN GODDAMIT!"_

 _As Kenny disappeared through the thick and dense covering of the forest ahead, Zoey prepared herself. Right before her stood four people. They were all wearing robes that hid most of their bodies. She didn't recognize anyone of them. Her eyes widened in realization when the rightmost guy propped open his hood. Even though he wasn't in his devil form she recognized his crooked smile and psychopathic laughter._

" _There you are you little annoying insect! I seriously had fun with your mother! AHA-HAHA" His pathologic laughter rang throughout the clearing. He maniacally licked his lips. "She put up a good fight though, she broke one of my horns. So I broke her legs! AHA-HAHA-AHAHA"_

 _Zoey dug her nails deep into her palms. She bit her lips. They both bled as tears flowed from her eyes. Her mother was already dead. And it was in the hands of the psychopathic maniac laughing in front of her. She had never been this angry in her life. She was so angry that her life didn't matter to her anymore. All she could think about was revenge._

 _Her whole body trembled in anger and resentment._

" _What should we do with her?" A lady from the ominous group spoke._

" _Capture her of course." The guy at the center answered casually. "Master Will might have some use with her."_

" _Or maybe." The one who killed Zoey's mother inserted with his rough vibrant voice. "You could just let me play with her! AHA"_

 _Zoey sprung from her ground towards them that she caught them all by surprise. But before she could land a blow a powerful kick sent her flying sideway. Her back slammed against a huge tree. She squeaked in pain as leaves fell from the impact._

 _The kick felt like it dislocated her lower jaw, pain burned like hot coal pressed against her bare skin. But nonetheless she stood up with shaky knees._

 _She saw that it was the guy right next to the one who killed her mother who kicked her. His legs were still in a raised-up in a position._

" _Sturdy child." He said in an uninterested voice._

 _Zoey sprung again towards them. But this time she saw another kick coming towards her, she crossed her arms and blocked the kick just in time. But it was still powerful enough to send her flying again. She spun a couple of times in midair and landed acrobatically on her knees._

" _Impressive." The guy followed._

 _Zoey bared her tiny fang, her eyes glowed bright red in deep resentment._

 _In a split second, the guy rushed forward to her. He was so fast that when he reappeared right in front of Zoey she had no time to react. His third kick hit her full force. Zoey flew up like a piece of can shot by a rifle. The guy had enormous power in his kicks. Zoey could feel all her bones snap at the impact. It felt like a cargo truck hit her on full speed._

 _What did her young and frail body did to deserve such a powerful kick?_

 _They were cold, merciless and heartless monsters. She haven't even land a blow on the monster that killed her mother. She felt so useless and weak._

 _She fell on the grassy field lifelessly like a ragged doll. Her body was erupting with pain everywhere, it screamed with agony like never before. She couldn't feel her body. She threw up blood like it was water. She was convinced that she was gonna die._

 _The guy who kicked her picked her up callously by her hair. Zoey winced. She was hanging limply. She embraced death and mentally said sorry to Kenny._

" _Should I finish her off?" He asked the other guys._

" _Don't." At her half-dead state, Zoey heard another voice. She was certain it wasn't from the four people she saw. It was another one. "This village is full of faerie devils. Peaceful weaklings." Zoey's short spiky auburn hair got loose from the guy's grip. She felt something wrapped around her waist and she was sent floating gently towards the one who spoke earlier. "But you girl, you're an imp devil, just like these four here. You hold potential for the war." Zoey came face to face to the guy talking to her. With blood in her eyes, she could hardly make out what he was wearing, but the only thing she recognized was his black-framed masquerade mask._

" _Prince Lance will be pleased. You four shall take care of this girl. She would be valuable to the growing army."_

" _Yes Master Will." The four replied in unison as they went back to the village._

 _The last thing she heard were the dying chirping of cicadas and the cackling of fire of the village as her body was slowly giving up to the pain. She was suspended in midair around Will like she was held by an invisible string. Her almost-dead body left trails of blood as her body finally gave up to the excruciating agony._

 _She hoped dearly that Kenny was able to escape. She promised that she would see him again, as partners._

* * *

Zoey switched the lights on in her bathroom. She looked at herself in front of the mirror before splashing water on her face. Though her red hair was short, she still couldn't believe it couldn't get away from a case of bed hair. She combed her locks with her fingers. It was already morning, the morning of her operation for revenge against Will and his four men.

Her anxiety for this day gave her a rough night filled with nightmares from her restless past. She was anxious but she was determined. She was sure ten years of training was enough. She had confidence in her strength and ability. She felt as strong as those four by now. She'd just have to take them one by one, especially the one who killed her mother. Zoey vowed to kill that guy first.

She long waited for this day to come.

She grabbed a face towel and dried her face. She got out of the bathroom and opened the windows of her apartment room. Fresh morning breeze gushed inside like the sea as she stared at the big university standing in front of the complex she was residing in.

Sinnoh's University of Hearthrome, a school with joyful students and staff but now filled with devils controlled by Will and the higher council operating to wage a new war against humans and their extinction for the better race.

"But Dawn, she must not go to school today. That place is no longer safe. I need to think of something."

She sighed as she closed back the windows.

"After all of this, I'll find Kenny and I'll introduce him to Dawn. He'll love her I'm sure. That'll show him not all humans are bad."

She smiled at the thought of them three playing and laughing together like normal kids undivided by race.

 _Just because we're monsters doesn't mean we don't have a heart._

 _You come with me of course! Our family holds no grudge against humans. Maybe not all humans hate our kind. And who knows! Maybe we'll be the first devil to establish peace! And we would be remembered forever! Our names written in books and we would be called heroes._

 _You really are too enthusiastic and hopeful for your own good._

 _We can do anything as long as we're together!_

"Wait for me, partner."

* * *

 **A.N** : To avoid confusion, I made the Netherworld (world of the devils) the same with the human world, so it' basically like an alternate dimension or reality. AND bulbapedia said that Zoey originally live at Snowpoint, but what the heck haha you can forgive me for that. Zoey's plan here doesn't include stopping the war, she only want revenge and to see Kenny again, so there's that, and, uh, oh, and when Will said about her being an "Imp Devil" and about her village filled with "Faerie Devils" It simply meant a class for devils differentiating them by strength. An imp devil is stronger compared to a faerie one (weakest class). And a bit of info/spoiler, Will is neither faerie nor imp, his strength is on another level so it's designated with another name. And tadah! So is Paul, well that one is obvious. I'll explain more of this classification in the upcoming chapters, as well as how their world is connected and how one travels in between the different worlds. More action in the upcoming chapters.

Hope you enjoyed the story so far. A review would be highly appreciated :D thanks for the continued support! Keep the questions coming and I'll answer them :)

Kicks!


	9. Chapter Eight

**A.N:** Hi guys it's been a long time since I updated this story. Three months have passed. I've been really busy and a lot happened in my life. My dad just passed away last September and before he died we had a very bad connection with each other. I was mad at him and I took things for granted. And was too late to I realized that. Anyway since I was away for a very long time I decided to post three chapters in this story as a make-up for my absence. So this is it :)

* * *

 **Chapter Eight – Unanticipated Reunion**

 _"I need to talk to you." Kenny started._

 _"No need." Paul interrupted. "I will be leaving."_

 _The moment Paul saw Kenny by the door, by the hard look of his eyes barring the fear behind it he immediately knew he wanted him to leave. But he didn't mind. It was logical for him to be afraid, just like everyone else._

 _They barely spent a second with each other._

 _He closed back the door and prepared his stuffs._

 _Being pushed away and feared had always been his life. He had grown accustomed to those looks of anxiety and horror peering over him. He had grown accustomed to people walking silently on tiptoes wherever he was around._

 _And he despised that as much as he despised himself._

 _His old self would cry, his old self would plead for friendship, his old self would doubt about his existence. But he had killed his old self._

 _He no longer craved for family, he no longer craved for friendship, he no longer craved for acceptance and he no longer craved company._

 _The last worn out thin thread he had been holding on to his humanity had long snapped._

 _As soon as he finished packing up his things, he went to the bathroom to wash his face._

 _What greeted him in the mirror as soon as he entered stunned him. He cautiously went near and examined himself. For seventeen long years, he finally saw the right iris of his eyes red._

 _His heart raced and his breathing deepened. Curiosity, rather than fear, slowly overwhelmed him._

 _Suddenly his head started aching so bad. He grunted and held the sink for support. Memories started surfacing one by one._

 _ **Why am I assigned to this kid? Subject7 is the most dangerous of the seven! He could kill us in an instant!**_

 _ **Shut up! All seven of them are dangerous! Not a single one of them is less favorable than the other! All of them are capable of killing you in a single second. They're far more dangerous than any devils we've encountered. What did you expect of cursed demi-devils of the most powerful devil emperor?**_

 _ **Don't you think it's better this way Sister Cheryl? His presence would just destroy the celebration anyway.**_

 _ **I told you we should have never adopted that child! Look at his right eye! It's red! It's a manifestation of a devil! A monster!**_

 _ **Everyone is scared of me, I get that. Just leave me alone.**_

 _ **B-but, I-I'm a-a m-mons-monster! Mons-monsters do-don't become ha-happy.**_

 _He cursed. Everything came crashing down on him all at once as if they've missed him._

" _I really am a monster." He grunted._

 _He held on the sink tighter. His hands stumbled upon a cold metallic object. With his hazy vision he saw that it was a small pair of silver scissors._

" _It's all because of this stupid eye, so maybe…" He huffed. "Just maybe…"_

 _He took it by his hands and pointed it directly at his right eye. His hands shook in horrid anticipation. He glanced at himself in the mirror. The scissors in his hands glinted light like it glinted of hope._

" _I'd rather go blind than have this despicable curse!"_

 _He took a deep breath as he plunged the object into the upper part of his eye socket. Pain he never felt before seared like mad fire. He snapped and let out a sharp cry. He chattered his teeth in agony. He fought a scream fighting its way up to his throat, but he killed it. If there was something else he placed more effort on other than not screaming, it was on how tight he held on the sink for support. His knuckles turned white. Any minute and he felt like he could destroy the thing under his grip._

 _Blood gushed forth from his eye and made a horrifying mess on the white bathroom tiles. It was like a fountain, dark red viscous fluid spilled on the sink as well as on the mirror._

 _He could feel the steel and coldness of the scissor inside his socket. He didn't like it. As seconds grew into minutes, the foreign object slowly contaminated his socket with its coldness. He took hold of the handle once more and sunk the object deeper and levered the ball out. He heard it fall on the sink with a low splash like wet cloth._

 _Another sharp cry and he threw away the scissors somewhere beside him. His head swayed like it gained weight as he tried to block the injured eye with both of his hands. It was like stopping a running hose. Blood was already everywhere that he didn't need to see just how messy he had made out of himself as well as the whole interior of the room._

 _Paul consecutively wheezed and puffed. He clawed his hands in intense pain. His eye turned like vacuum sucking in every inch of his strength._

 _It was unbearable._

 _His body staggered and he could feel his grip on the sink slowly slipping. His knees buckled under him. His consciousness barely hung on._

 _He had loss too much blood and he was still losing blood. Maybe he had stabbed himself deeper than he thought._

 _He tried opening his shaky left eye but it was all blurry, but nonetheless he could still see how he splashed blood all over the place like it was his one huge canvass._

 _The world around him spun as every part of his body quivered._

 _His grip finally gave way to his weight that he fell on the warm puddle of blood he made on the floor._

 _His breathing became slow. He could barely feel his own heartbeat._

 _The last straw of his consciousness held on to a single question – was he going to die? He didn't know taking out an eye would be enough kill a person. The pain was unbelievable. Paul slowly blacked out no matter how much he didn't want to._

 _He wanted to see Sister Cheryl again._

 _The agony got the better of him as his consciousness drifted away._

…

Paul slowly opened his eyes.

"Nightmares." He muttered to himself. "I can't believe I dreamed about what I just did."

He sat up from the sofa.

He looked at the darkness beyond the closed glass windows. "Must be around 4AM." His bare feet made contact with the cold floor as he made his way toward the window. Even though he had the same reoccurring nightmares about his childhood, having a few days free from them and having them back again made him feel unaccustomed which he found really weird.

He leaned on the windows and shifted his focus from the city lights to his own reflection.

"I am a monster. I should never forget that." He balled his fist. "Why am I still holding on to the littlest hope that I am otherwise?"

 _Of course! Your eye is far more beautiful and precious than any gems I've seen. And do you know what makes it prettier than any gems?_

 _I don't know._

 _It's because it's alive. And no one can steal it away from you, it's yours alone. They can only gaze at it in jealousy._

 _How many times have I told you? How could an obedient and good child like you be a monster?_

 _That's why I want you to continue on wishing for happiness. I may not be your real mother but your happiness is what I've always wished for. I want you to be happy. Even if it means reserving you your favorite dessert away from several children and waking you up in the middle of the night to wish you a happy birthday._

The memories that rushed to his head like a speeding train ached him so bad. He covered his right eye and stumbled back. He could faintly see from his reflection on the window that it was glowing red again.

It had been glowing red more frequently.

He did try to take out his eye a couple of days ago. He thought that by removing it he could break free from his curse, but of course it wouldn't be that easy. He should have known. It would be more complicated than just removing his own eye to stop his curse.

It was the height of noon when he woke up after that gruesome experiment. Blood was still everywhere. His right eye still burned like coal but when he got up, he was too shocked to articulate words.

The eye he definitely got out was back into place as if nothing was ever done. The pain made him sure that he did what he did, but how it got back into place was something he didn't know. It felt like someone placed it back into place. It was creepy as it was mysterious.

He cringed at the horrid memory. Now he knew that taking out the eye wouldn't make any difference at all.

"I am maybe more than just a monster."

Then he remembered later that day how he saved Dawn just by merely looking at the two strangers after her.

 _What are you really?_

 _You're welcome. A monster, apparently. Isn't it obvious?_

 _Thank you, uh, by the way, sorry. Mind if you could stay at my place for a couple more days?_

 _You weren't scared? You are stupider than I thought._

'Half-blood'. He echoed in his own thoughts.

And suddenly he turned around by reflex and saw no one. He heard the gushing of wind inside Dawn's room.

"That stupid girl. She's supposed to be old enough to know that she could get a cold by leaving her windows open."

Seeing that something was definitely wrong, he marched towards her room and found out that it wasn't locked. He turned the nob open and saw her cozy tiny room cold and barren. The pink curtain went still as the cold breeze died.

He felt the sheet of her bed. It was cold.

"Damn it. She didn't get home?"

He immediately grabbed his faded pair of jeans and his purple sweater and went outside the door. He knocked on Kenny's room.

"Hello? Is she there?" Paul asked right away.

No one answered.

He cursed as he rushed down the stairs and outside the apartment. The first streak of dawn shot Paul as he ran toward nowhere in particular as long as he could possibly find her.

"What a really troublesome girl."

…

As Zoey left her apartment, she dug her phone from her bag and started dialing Dawn's number.

"That's funny, is Dawn sleeping in?" She dialed it again only to get the same empty response. "I should have asked where she lived for times like this. Aren't I just the best?" She sighed. "Maybe she's already going to school and just forgot her phone." She thought. "But that's highly un-Dawn-like."

Zoey trudged down the stairs and pondered. She decided to just leave her a message as she continued going to school.

She breathed in deeply, anxiety scratching her skin. It was going to be a big day, with Will leaving for an appointment she only has this chance for her revenge. She had endured ten years of painful waiting just for this day and now she was getting the things she deserved.

She tapped her white school blouse and skirt as she ran through the mission in her head once more.

The first one to kill was Johnny, the devil with the bulky built with powerful arms. It wasn't a question, he was definitely going to die first, he had killed Zoey's mother. He had scourged the head security and was now working at the security office at the lowest floor of the school's center wing.

The second one would be Steve, the devil with a sturdy body. He was the biggest of the four but because of this he was also the slowest. But he was not to be underestimated. He packed powerful punches strong enough to destroy concrete walls. He had scourged the head janitor and is now disguised perfectly as the head of the social service room.

The other was Rick, the devil with stretchable and powerful legs. From her experience with the group, he was the strongest of the four. She had never forgotten the beating he did on her when she was still young. He was cold and merciless, just like Will. He had scourged their PE class teacher. It was the main reason she hated that class.

And lastly there was Anna, the tall girl with black thick framed glasses. She was mysterious. Zoey barely knew anything about her for ten years. Anna was always with Will that was all Zoey knew about her. She had scourged the secretary and had been with Will's side ever since they had started the plan of running the school. Zoey guessed that she wasn't the combat type, but more of an intel gathering type.

Will was going away with Anna and Rick, leaving only Steve and Johnny. This made her mission advantageous.

Zoey passed through the huge school gates. Even though it was still early, the school had that uncanny silence. Zoey shrugged it off and continued forward.

She walked briskly to the right wing of the university. She pushed her back against the cold concrete wall. She breathed in deeply before sneaking inside and trudged down the stairs to the security office room.

The hallway was dark and silent, but Zoey went on. She touched the knob and felt the coldness died with her warmth. It was silent. Nobody was inside.

"That's unusual. Johnny rarely leaves this place." She got confused. Something was wrong and she could feel it.

The far end of the dark hallway was the huge door to the gymnasium. The glow underneath the door caught her attention. She walked towards it but cautiously stopped midway. She could hear faint noises. Her curiosity swelled as she pushed the door open slowly.

A bright light punched her in the face. She closed her eyes in disdain. And then she could hear yelling. Everywhere. She shaded her eyes with her left hand and slowly made out of her surroundings.

"And there you have her boys and girls!" Zoey recognized the voice. "The main star of the show!" Zoey's eyes had already grown accustomed to the brightness. What laid before her horrified her.

She was all alone on the court. The upper benches were filled with scourged students and faculty members. It was a sea of red eyes. They were all yelling and screaming as if a huge sick game was going on. She looked to her side and saw a few more students locked in a cage, they were all crying.

"What the hell is going on?" She asked herself.

"Now now children, as you all know this girl here is Zoey Nozomi." Zoey turned to the speaker on a floating small platform. "This girl here is your role model, strong and independent.. A devil worthy of praise."

Zoey could feel her ears popped by the thunderous yell that followed.

Zoey couldn't see who the speaker was, the blinding light of the spotlight made it impossible. But just the voice was enough for her to recognize who it was. She had miscalculated her plan.

The platform slowly leveled down. "And after years of training her, she's now here thinking she could kill me!" The audiences roared. "Isn't it funny? Not only she's an ungrateful spoiled brat but she's apparently also disgustingly stupid!" The figure laughed followed by another roar of the audience. "Always chasing after revenge!"

Zoey gritted her teeth.

"Zoey here is very welcome to show you all what betrayal means." The floating platform lowered and landed on the cemented court. A familiar figure got off and walked towards her. "And it's going to give you all a very important lesson about being stupid and its cost."

The black edge of his mask reflected light to her as a powerful blow suddenly hit her on her side and sent her crashing to the cage with the remaining human students. Her body dented the bars of the cage as she fell on the ground. The students inside cried to her.

"Please help us.."

Zoey cursed under her breath and slowly stood up. "Shit." Her side throbbed. She placed a hand over the area.

"Death!" Will hissed with his poisonous voice. "But of course dying wouldn't be fun without suffering." He pulled the white gloves of his hands as another platform above slowly lowered to the ground beside him. "You are going to entertain us all." As the platform landed, it showed another cage.

"Oh no…" Zoey dropped open her jaw when she saw two unconscious bodies inside the cage.

"Aren't you going to thank me? Haven't you been looking for this guy for years?" Will amusedly clipped his hips and laughed.

"Kenny…" Zoey gave a tearful gasp. "You're alive… I, I can't believe it."

She narrowed her vision to get a clearer view of the person lying next to him.

"And Dawn?" Zoey cupped her mouth. "Dawn!" She started frantically running towards them only to be hit back again by another powerful force hitting her in the chest this time. She flew back and rolled backwards painfully on the ground.

"Let them go you monster!" Zoey screamed as she struggled to stand up again. Her knees trembled from the impact.

"Now now." Will made a tch sound as he walked towards her. "Do you think I didn't know what you were planning all along? You are so naïve that it hurts."

Zoey looked up and saw Anna at the top most bench with her arms crossed. She couldn't see her eyes for her glasses were reflecting light.

For some reason Anna found out about her plan. She cussed.

Will got close and cupped her chin. "I know this is not the kind of reunion you were planning but you will have to fight for their freedom." He chuckled right beside her ears. "Or at least one of their freedom." He laughed haughtily. "You are going to make it fun for us."

Zoey glared at him without fear. "Fuck. You." She spat bitterly.

"I see." Will harshly slapped her face and stood back. "So you really want to die that badly."

Will made a motion with his fingers and a huge figure dropped from above. The impact caused a slight tremor shaking up everyone inside the gymnasium.

"AHA-HAHA-AHAHAHA!"

Zoey bit her lips and made a fist with her palms at the huge figure in front of her.

"Johnny, show this ungrateful brat some discipline."

"CRUSH! BONE! CRUSH! CONSUME! HAHAHA-AHA!"

Will climbed back up on the platform. "And entertain us all while you're at it." He said as the platform he was on and the platform with Kenny and Dawn rose back up.

"As ugly as ever. And I see your horn have healed fully."

Zoey stood in a defensive stance as Johnny came stampeding towards her.

"How did it even come to this? Failure."

She partly admitted to herself that she won't likely survive. She had been living in borrowed time for ten years. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. She opened her eyes red, her teeth turned into fangs and her nails turned pointed.

"But no matter I will save you both. Kenny and Dawn. We will make it out of this. Or at least you both will. And while we are at it I'll have my revenge."

She screamed as she charged full-speed towards the monstrosity coming at her.

* * *

 **A.N** : Some of you may be confused with the earlier part but it happened the morning of the day where Dawn looked for Paul, if memory serves. I added that part since I miraculously remembered to show how Paul saw his red eye for the first time and how he tried taking it out. Anyway hope you guys have a blissful day! :)

...Kicks!


	10. Chapter Nine

**Chapter Nine – Zoey Nozomi Versus Johnny Marco**

"I WILL BREAK YOUR BONES!" Johnny charged at Zoey in his bulky devil form, running on all fours. "JUST LIKE WHAT I DID TO YOUR MOTHER! AHA-HAHA!"

Nothing changed ever since she last saw his metamorphosis. He still has that unruly beard and crazy twitching eyes. His pale blue skin had scars of a darker shade like tattoos. Hairs stood all over his body like tendrils. He had those huge and predatory claws that could rip her teenage body with a single swing. His mouth curved open in a frightening way showing an array of outward-pointing teeth. His long snake tongue drooped over the side of his mouth like a tie and he had now fully recovered his twisted broken horn that now grew again backwards reaching his lower back.

And most of all, he still had those sick red eyes always glowing for insatiable carnage.

"Come and get some you ugly fucker!" Zoey suddenly flipped up when they were about to butt heads. She took hold of his horn and rode on his back. "How do you like this ha?!" She pushed her weight down on the back of his shoulder.

The action caught Johnny off guard and the sudden push of her weight got him smothering his own face across the floor. He grunted in agony as his face destroyed cement along the way. Zoey gave him another powerful kick on his back destroying the ground as it hit Johnny's body. Dust clouded over the area.

As the dust slowly settled down Johnny was no longer seen on the ground. Zoey got surprised. She twisted her head looking for him. He was gone. She stood cautiously and kept on looking around. Cheers and screaming of the audiences were distracting her and the blow Will had done on her side still throbbed.

When the dust cleared up, it was then she realized that the kick she did on Johnny created a hole. No, Johnny created the hole. She was too late to realize that and before she could jump off away from the ground where she stood, the ground beneath her erupted and Johnny resurfaced and took hold of her left leg and brought her in midair.

Zoey gasped in pain. His muscular grip crushed her left tibia.

"Not too smart now huh insect?!" Johnny raised her up with his arm and threw her to the ground in brutal speed. "HAHA-AHA-HAHA!"

Zoey sped down like a bullet. She made a piercing cry as her body crashed to the ground. The fall was violent. Zoey's body bounced like a ball after it hit the floor. She coughed up blood and stayed on the ground inanimately.

The cheers of the audiences popped her ears.

Johnny landed with a heavy thud and walked towards her. "What's the matter insect?" His greasy voice asked. "You are an imp devil. Show me your metamorphosis! Where's your devil form?! An imp is useless without his devil form. You'll be just like any other faerie devils. Weaklings!"

She picked Zoey up by the hair. Her white school blouse and skirt were now tattered and torn over her limp half-dead body. She had so much injuries over her body that she could no longer feel it. All she could feel was crippling pain.

"Is this all you got insect?!" He gnarled behind her ear as he lifted her up. "PATHETIC!" He launched consecutive punches on her face. "PATHETIC! PATHETIC! PATHETIC! PATHETIC! PATHETIC!"

Zoey felt each punch clobbering and destroying her jaw line, nose bridge, and whatever else on her face. Her head dripped blood like they were sweat. It traced the frames of her cheeks down to her neck and all the way to her chest and arms. Her white uniform was barely recognizable from the bloody mess. Her consciousness was slipping away and the roar of the audiences and the cries of the caged humans slowly died.

"PATHETIC! PATHETIC! PATHETIC! PATHETIC!"

Johnny kept on pounding mercilessly, laughing in complete hysteria.

"JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER!"

And with one powerful throw, he casually threw Zoey across the gymnasium. Her body rolled on the ground before banging on the wall. Her body kissed the ground. Her heartbeat was dying.

All she saw was darkness, she wasn't hearing anything and she wasn't feeling anything. It only meant one thing to her – death. And if she was going to die she was dying in a very horrible way. She died because her plan failed. She died because she got overconfident. She died to the monster who killed her mother. She died without getting her revenge. And most of all, she got Dawn in danger and Kenny in danger for a second time. She was too weak and pathetic that it was disgusting.

Johnny was right.

"I..I'm…t-th-the…w-wo-wors-worst..."

Tears dropped from her bloodstained eyes as Zoey's consciousness faded away.

…

 _"Watch your left!" Will commanded as he launched a kick to her side. Zoey knocked back from the hit but regained balance afterwards._

 _"We've been over this for a few days already Nozomi." Will reprimanded her. "Never close your eyes during hand to hand combat. You'll lose quickly that way." He scratched his head in an annoyed manner._

 _"Sorry." Zoey bowed immediately. "Can we practice again?"_

 _Will didn't respond. She looked up and saw his irritated expression._

 _"Listen. Imp devils are far more capable than faerie devils. Your kind are very skilled at hand to hand combat and mobility. Plus you have your metamorphosis which doubles or triples your attributes!" He raised his hands in exasperation. "But you! We've been practicing for two years and you still don't know your metamorphosis! You can't even fight properly!"_

 _Zoey bowed her head in disdain and bit her lips. She wanted to deny but what Will said was nothing but the truth. All she could do was bitterly absorb it all._

 _"And you are even supposed to be her daughter." Will murmured as he began walking away from the open grass field where they practiced since morning. "What a disappointment." And as an idea sparked in Will's head, he swiftly turned around and maniacally grinned at Zoey._

 _"Nozomi." He began as Zoey looked up at him, her tattered shirt and skirt swayed with the late afternoon breeze. "I won't train you again until you have your metamorphosis ready." He added. He cupped his chin as the setting sun behind him made his shadow loomed over Zoey's nine year old body. "Plus, I will tell you something about your mother that I'm very sure she hadn't told you about."_

 _As soon as Will mentioned her mother Zoey sprang from her ground and reached him. "What did you say about mother?! Tell me!" She clung on his purple slacks and begged. "Tell me please!"_

 _Will sighed and felt his head. "You really are such a stubborn girl."_

 _He grunted as flicked her away from his leg. Zoey landed on her back that got her crying out in pain._

 _"Didn't you hear what I just said?" He menacingly glared at her. "Not until you'll have your metamorphosis." He hissed before walking away. "Until then you'll either be training by yourself or under those four. I don't care. I can't waste more time with a failure like you."_

 _"And oh spoiler." Will quickly turned around and looked at her. "You're nothing like your mother." He laughed haughtily and resumed walking ahead._

 _Zoey slowly got up. She arced her aching back as she wiped her tears with the back of her hand. "Metamorphosis." She murmured to herself. "And something I didn't know about mother. I must learn it."_

" _I must learn it, I must learn it, I must learn it!" Zoey pounded the ground in utter frustration. "I must learn it, I must learn it, I must!"_

…

The audiences of devils continued cheering for Johnny. They were all shouting for him to rip Zoey apart. At the top-most bench the remaining three henchmen all gave a disappointed look at her. After ten years of excruciating training, Zoey didn't improve greatly.

Will merely let a sigh breeze past his lips. He clapped his gloved hands once as the platform he was on slowly lowered down.

"KILL HER! KILL HER! KILL HER! KILL HER!" The audience cheered.

Johnny looked at Will before Will gave him a look of approval. Johnny sadistically grinned as he launched himself on the air and landed in front of the brutally battered redhead.

"BYE BYE INSECT! HA-AHA-HAHA!"

He picked her up by her hair again.

"DIIIIIIIEEEEE-" Johnny gasped when he saw her face. He was so surprised that he dropped her immediately and backed away a few meters. He suddenly got frightened.

Zoey stood up shakily. She heaved heavy breaths of air.

"You may call me pathetic.." She limped and walked towards him. "But I can never forgive you for ridiculing my mother!" She looked at him with fiery eyes. The pupils of her eyes turned into slits like cat's eyes. Her canine tooth enlarge that they were visible even from Johnny's distance. Her ears got pointy and she grew flaming red fur on both of her forearms and legs including one big red furry tail. She grew two minute horns barely visible by her now shaggy longer red hair. All injuries on her body released smoke and soon she was completely healed. Her face grew fiercer and her expression menacing.

"Take back what you said…" She hissed.

For some unknown reason, Johnny was afraid of her. His body was trembling.

"I see.." She followed. She looked at him with empty and cold merciless eyes. Her slit pupils constricted. "THEN I SHALL RIP YOU TO PIECES!" She snarled as she came running to him at frightening speed.

"N-N-NO! STAY BACK!" Johnny tried to run away but Zoey got hold of his horn. She pulled him back with her two hands and kneed his back. She broke his horns as she bended his spine as well. The crackling of his spine was heard throughout the gymnasium. He screamed in pain. He wailed and writhed on the ground in agony.

"You son of a bitch!" Johnny screamed as he tried to kick her. But Zoey got ahead and crossed her arms as shield. Johnny barely moved her. The scratches on her arms smoked and healed immediately.

"Take back what you said. And maybe, just maybe. I'll think about letting you live."

"Y-y-yo-your mo-mmo-moth-mother.." Johnny trembled as he backed away slowly. "Y-you-your mother wa-wasn-wasn't path-"

A sharp piercing noise stopped Johnny midsentence.

The nail of Zoey's forefinger lengthened and pierced Johnny through his skull. He died immediately. His heavy muscular lifeless body collapsed on the dusty floor.

"Too late. I was never going to let you live anyway." She said as her blood stained nail retracted back to normal size. "That's what you get for killing my mother."

Everyone went silent.

Johnny Marco, Will's henchman. One of the most powerful devils in the school was killed. Everyone was shocked, even the three remaining henchmen.

Then a series of clapping broke the tensioned silence.

"Bravo! Magnificent! Outstanding!" Will laughed and got off the platform. "Excellent performance Nozomi!"

"You condescending bastard!" She charged at him only to be blown back by an invisible force. She flipped in midair and used her tail and cushioned her fall. "Shit. You and your fucking ability."

"Don't get cocky Nozomi. You may have powered up but I am on a complete higher pedestal from the likes of you. But for a half-metamorphosis, you're impressive." He smiled devilishly. "Just like your mother."

"Half-metamorphosis?" She asked.

"Your metamorphosis is still incomplete, a juvenile." He stated casually. "You see, powerful metamorphosis takes time to mature. That is how powers work in devils. The stronger it is the more time it needs to mature and the more sacrifice you have to do to complete it. And you just woke it up. That is the beginning."

"Fuck you and your metamorphosis bullshit!" She followed immediately. Her body was on crazy fire. Blood rushed throughout her body like speeding cars. She wanted to kill in order to stay calm. No, she _needed_ to kill. She thirst blood like never before. She crazed for murder. She was barely controlling herself. Her body gave menacing barbaric seizures.

She breathed noticeably and heavily, clawing the floor beneath her in attempt to control her thirst. Her claws punctured the ground easily like it was made of clay.

"So how does it feel now that you had your revenge?" The edge of Will's mask glinted light from the spotlight above. "Or hadn't you?" He scoffed and laughed like a total lunatic, clutching his abdomen as his hysterical laughter filled the gymnasium.

Zoey's eyebrows creased.

"Say what?" She snarled at his mockery. "What did you fucking say?!"

"Poor Johnny." He wiped a tear and slowly stopped laughing. "Did you see his face? He was pissing himself! Your mother really had done him well."

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Zoey's breathing got heavier by the second. She was ready any second to pounce and claw Will's eyes out. "Stop laughing you bastard!"

"Remember what I promised you eight years ago?" Will questioned. "I'll tell you."

The gymnasium with over four hundred individuals got silent.

"The dark past your mother hid from you. How we used to work together. How she betrayed the higher council. How she got your poor little village in danger. " Will paused as he mockingly smiled at the look of confusion and disbelief on Zoey's face.

"And how _I_ killed your mother. The feared Marilyn 'Red Nightmare' Nozomi."


	11. Chapter Ten

**Chapter Ten – Red Nightmare**

"My mother used to work with you?" As if Zoey was shot by a tranquilizer, her rabid seizures stopped suddenly. "Stop lying! That can't be true!" She retorted.

"Now now shut up and let me just tell the story." Will stated as he used his telekinetic ability and pinned Zoey down. "Just stay put."

Zoey tried to get up but she was glued to the ground.

"Now where shall I begin?" Will pondered. "Oh I know. It all began during the fall of our kind, the last war, about half a century ago." He smiled as he floated and sat on the air. He crossed his legs in front of her and started telling the story. "After the last war when the demon king perished, our kind returned to the Netherworld scared, like little lost puppies. Now you would think what humans had that would make us lose the war right?" He asked.

Zoey grunted, still trying to push herself up.

"They had their champion, a powerful human with a holy ability. He single handedly defeated us. But let's not dwell on that, this is about your mother after all." He followed. "We retreated back to Netherworld, but thankfully before the last demon king died he had four children. But they were all still too young back then to continue his rule. And no one continued ruling the Netherworld, allowing some devils to take advantage and creating chaos. Some devils even tried escaping to the human world to avoid the conflict and the struggle that we used to experience. That's how devastated we were by the last war."

Zoey stopped struggling. It was no use, she was helplessly pinned down. She tried to calm herself and just listen.

"The eldest and only daughter of the demon king took control when chaos was no longer controllable. At such a young age she was very capable. At that time I was your age and just started working in the council. One day she gathered us all and announced each of us specific roles to regain peace. And that was when I met your mother for the first time." He grinned at her, edging him to continue.

"What are you smiling about?!" Zoey angrily shouted. "Continue!"

"I was tasked to regulate the peace in Sinnoh Netherworld, killing stupid devils trying to take advantage of the other. I was trying to stop our kind from self-extinction." He breathed in deeply before continuing, he raised both his pointer and middle finger up. "Anyway, there are two reasons why devils escape to the human world. One is to escape from my persecution. And the other reason is love."

"Love?" Zoey echoed. "You mean devils falling in love with humans?"

"We hate humans and humans hate us. So it's only natural to kill each other. But falling in love with the other race is not impossible and should not be tolerated." He continued. "They are the lowest of the lowest! An awful disgrace. Of course they deserve to die!" He infuriated. "And that was the job of your mother."

"You're lying! That can't be true!" Zoey interrupted, trying to break free from his telekinesis again. "You're lying! My mother didn't hurt anyone! Stop lying!" She clamped her ears in attempt to block his words from her earshot. "Stop lying to me!" She cried out.

Will only laughed at her anguish. "Didn't hurt anyone?" He laughed harder. "Marilyn was perfect for the job! Too perfect!"

Zoey's eyes trembled, she just couldn't believe everything she'd been hearing from Will. It didn't make any sense to her. Her mother, Marilyn, was the kindest person in her life. Marilyn taught her how to love and to hope. Marilyn was not the type of devil who ran on bloodlust. Someone that would wake Zoey up early in the morning so she could have her milk and breakfast would never be the one who knew how to kill.

"She was cold, heartless and powerful. She was so powerful in fact that she was regarded as one of the most highly skilled devils in the council despite being just an imp. She used to be more powerful than I was. And most importantly, she had a deep-rooted hatred for humans. She killed a lot of devils and humans Nozomi. And she didn't shed even a drop of sympathy to those hundreds she killed." Will added. "That's how she earned her title 'Red Nightmare'. She was a living nightmare. 'Red' of course referred to her hair. Unlike your hair she had long flowing one. It was her distinctive attribute as an infamous assassin."

"My mother didn't kil-".

"Your mother didn't kill anyone?! That's a laugh Nozomi! She did her job with incomparable passion!" Will cut her off.

Then realization beached over Zoey.

 _Humans might call us monsters, but just because we are doesn't mean we don't have a heart. I know that there are kind humans out there just like there are kind devils out here. Use the birth stone and survive. I love you. Your father and I love you._

Her mother had been in the human world. Her mother told her stories about the human world. It was the reason why she dreamed of being here in the first place. But she didn't know why her mother wouldn't tell her anything about her going to the human world. And when Zoey asked her why, Marilyn would only smile at her. And now that she heard Will about this, she was slowly absorbing it all.

Will smiled darkly.

"The birth stone…" Zoey whispered to herself.

"BINGO!" Will's voice thundered in the gymnasium that even got the listening audiences in surprise. "The birth stone! Now you know why she had that."

"A ticket.." Zoey's voice was filled with remorse. "A ticket to the human world and back.."

Will laughed for the upteempth time. "Assassins tasked to kill outside of Netherworld were all given birth stones by the council. It is only logical for your mother to have one."

Zoey lost her strength. She didn't want to believe about everything Will said but a huge part of her clung to those words. Even without proof she knew that there was a shred of truth to them.

"But her bloodlust didn't last long." Will interrupted her thoughts. "She soon fell to the same pitiful and pathetic path she had always hated."

Zoey looked up at him, wanting him to continue.

"She fell in love with a lowly human. I don't know how it happened but she did." Will answered Zoey's look at him. "And that was the start of her fall. And the most awful thing was, they were mutual, this human also fell in love with her, despite being opposites. It was disgusting." Will made a mocking cringe before continuing. "Marilyn knew her duty so well and despite that she still went out with this guy. She even used her position selfishly. And when the council knew of her irresponsibility and betrayal, I was the one tasked to handle it." Will grimaced. "I killed that guy and Marilyn was detained and punished for two years."

"And it didn't end there." Will cleared his throat. "When her two years of torture was about to end she went missing. She left the council without notice. And then I was tasked again to find and seize her."

"So the reason you raided our village was because of my mother?" Zoey questioned.

"No." Will answered immediately. "I gave up on that mission after failing to find her for nine years. The main reason why I stumbled on your little pathetic village was to gather soldiers for the upcoming war. Like what I'm doing now. It was just coincidence."

Zoey thought about everything she could remember about her mother. Her kind and warm smile, her long flowing red hair, her white fair skin, her beautiful face that seemed to defy aging, her silhouette by the front porch drying clothes in early summer morning, and most of all, her selfless endeavors towards her and her father. She balled her fist. "My mother was kind, she made me happy and father happy, she was always working with her best when it came to our happiness. Your story can't be true." She replied. "And even if it is my mother was trying to redeem herself! And you ruined it for her!"

Will jumped from his position in midair and landed on the ground. He walked towards Zoey and looked down at her. "Redeem herself? Are you hearing yourself Nozomi? I honestly was shocked when I saw your mother again. She was trying to live a new life. It was cute. Washing dishes, clothes, sweeping etcetera. The infamous Red Nightmare, lying on the couch watching butterflies mate in her garden as she braided her hair. Can't you see how crazy and laughable that is?!" Will laughed hysterically. "Living the same kind of life the devils she used to slaughter mercilessly! I can't even believe how she managed to do that! And you call that redeeming?" He asked disbelievingly. "It was a selfish brazen act of her to do that!"

He bent up and shouted to the audience. The audience gave an approving roar. He looked down at her again. "Marilyn thought she could leave her past behind and rebuild her life by having her own family. She thought that she could redeem herself by forgetting all those people she killed. And she was expecting a happy ending after all those gruesome killing she did?" He leaned closer and crouched down. Zoey could barely see Will as the spotlight behind him darkened his whole body. "Guess I know where that stupidity of yours came from." He stood up and continued laughing.

The audience hollered after Will.

Zoey was so angry. She didn't even know which made her angrier, Will making up stories about her mother or Will making fun of her mother. She was so mad that she wasn't able to articulate any retort. All she ever wanted was to strangle the life out of the bastard laughing in front of her. She wanted to rip Will apart.

"Speaking of stupidity." Will thought. "When I attacked your village ten years ago, your mother was fighting against Johnny. Your mother was in full devil form at that time and if I wasn't there Johnny could have lost more than his horn. That was really a touching reunion for the two of us." Will nodded at her. "That answers your question why he pissed himself. You reminded him so much of your mother who almost skinned him alive. He taunted you so I guess you could say he got what he asked for."

"See what else you two had in common?" Will amused as he stepped on the platform again. Zoey felt the pressure disappear on her. She slowly got back up. "Johnny only did the finishing touch to your mother. He was pathetic to be honest."

Two figure dropped from above and landed on both of Will's side.

The platform slowly rose back up again. "I've talked too much. I'll be late, I don't want Prince Lance to wait. Rick and Steve you know what to do. And don't forget about her friends." He gestured at his two henchmen. "And Anna, let's go. I'll be late for the meeting." He turned his head to a girl in slick black single-breasted suit. Anna pushed her thick-framed glasses up and showed an approving nod. The platform rose and disappeared at higher altitude.

Steve grunted in his position. He removed his black blazer and white tie. He threw them behind him. Compared to Johnny, he was shorter and more round. But it didn't make him look any less intimidating than him, his bald head paired with his murderous look was enough nightmare fuel for anyone in the school. He gave another animalistic grunt before crackling his knuckles.

Will and Anna looked one last time at her. Anna clapped her hands, she and Will immediate disappeared like bubbles. Zoey guessed that it was part of Anna's ability.

And finally Rick stepped forward. He was in the same black formal suit. His shoulder length coal hair was pushed back in a slick fashion. His chiseled face scowled at her as if this was going to waste his time. He had that sharp look always unafraid of threat. Because of course threatening was his job. His long legs reminded her of that encounter she had with him ten years ago.

Zoey stood her ground in a defensive stance. The audience roared as Rick and Steve circled around her. After Johnny, she was going to face the most powerful of his henchmen – Rick Rabid. And not just Rick but with Steve Jonas, the most sturdy devil she had ever met.

Even with her half-metamorphosis, she admitted that it was going to suck for her to battle against them. But she had to try. She still hadn't got her revenge for her mother.

"You know what else you and your mother had in common?" Rick asked in his deep monotonous voice.

Zoey only raised an eyebrow.

"You are both a lost cause." He calmly said as he kicked the dirt towards her. Zoey's eyes stung from the dust. She wasn't able to evade Rick's powerful right kick hitting her side.

Zoey flew across the room and rammed into the wall. She coughed painfully and staggered getting up. The wound on her side smoked and quickly healed.

"I refuse to believe everything I heard. My mother loved me and she would never hurt anyone." Zoey murmured to herself. She spat blood and wiped her cheek. Her slit pupils blazed as she looked fiercely at Rick and Steve. "If she was anything, she would be anything but a lost cause!"

She jumped up. It was too fast that it seemed that she disappeared in a blink. She landed behind Steve. And before Steve could react, Zoey spun around, hardened her tail and smacked Steve like a baseball ball. He flew across the gym and barreled through the thick walls of cement. The whole gymnasium shook at the impact as the audiences swayed from the shock.

"Don't you ever make fun of my mother!" She gnashed, her body rabidly shaking in bloodlust again.

* * *

 **A.N** : If you're wondering why I focused so much on Zoey, it is because she's one of the main characters. Now that I think about it, I have ten main characters in this story, (Zoey, Kenny, Dawn, Paul, May, Drew, Gary, Leaf, Misty and Ash) that is a lot. But the really main characters here is Dawn and Paul, I will be investing in them little by little throughout the story and as i plan the plot, because everything will be about them in the last part.

Thanks for reading! :3

...Kicks!


	12. Chapter Eleven

**A.N** : Hi guys! Time for another update! After a few days of being away I finally updated, because why not? I've been writing this chapter for a week and I'm editing the plot a lil bit. Anyway you guys have been awesome and as always I will try to update as much as I can. I've been mentioning persons and stuffs such as Lance, birth stone etc etc and I will be explaining them at a later chapter. So uhh, yeah guess that is all. For this chapter, more action!

I certainly don't own pokemon.

* * *

 **Chapter Eleven – Zoey Nozomi Versus Rick Rabid and Steve Jonas**

"Quite the power there." Rick flatly commented. His gaze fleeted over the hole in the wall where Steve barreled through. Dust and smoke clouded over the area. It was slowly crumbling apart.

Zoey sent a sharp look before exploding from the ground. She head speeding towards Rick. Rick stayed stationary. He stayed indifferent to her intimidation, both hands inside his pocket. His cold red eyes held no interest and held no fear.

Zoey bellowed as she stretched her arms at Rick. He smiled a lopsided smile and merely jumped back. Zoey's pointed nails punctured the cemented ground. Zoey snarled, her hands stuck.

"You got faster kid."

"Shut up!"

Zoey crushed the ground and resumed attacking again. She swung her arms, left , right, left and right multiple times. Rick swayed and stepped back, foot after foot. Zoey was hitting anything but Rick. She was fast but he was faster.

"You may have become quicker." Rick uttered in between Zoey's attacks, completely evading without any effort.

"Stay still damn it!" Zoey grunted, frustrated by her wasted attacks.

"But you're upsettingly predictable." One more missed attack and Rick took hold of Zoey's arm. She was surprised. He pulled her towards him and hit Zoey's face against his shoulder. Zoey shuddered back but Rick didn't let go yet. He pulled her again and kneed her abdomen. He tightened his grip on her arm and threw her up like a discus.

Zoey hit the metals sheets of the roofing and crashed to the ground. She let out a sharp cry.

The crowd went wild.

"Don't think speed is all there is in combat." Rick remarked. He tapped the cloth of his blazer that was stained with Zoey's blood. He made a 'tch' sound. "This will not do." He muttered to himself as he removed his blazer and dropped it on the ground. He loosened his tie.

Zoey tottered up. Her wounds smoked again and she healed.

Rick was right. She was attacking recklessly, trying so hard to get a hit. It was lame. She needed to step her game up. But how exactly?

'There's gotta be more than speed and regeneration in this form.' Zoey thought.

Rick cracked his neck. "Come." He stood low and defensively. "I know there is more under your sleeve." He coolly added. "It's what you're thinking right?"

The sea of red eyes cheered for Rick. He was surely someone not to be messed with. He was a veteran, formidable and always unfazed. She cussed. She was having a hard time and he was not even in his devil form yet.

"Shit."

Then she remembered how she killed Johnny. There was indeed something else she could do.

Rick noticed the glint in her eyes. Zoey was planning something. He just smirked.

"Try me kid."

Zoey exploded from the ground again and copied exactly what she tried to do the last time. Rick cocked an eyebrow. "Again?"

She dived harder than the previous. He stepped back again and her bullet dive missed as expected. However, Zoey made sure it would miss so her impact would create an explosion of dust. Dust from the impact created a smokescreen.

Rick used his arms to protect himself from the dust. He coughed. The dust barely made anything visible. He was about to jump back away from the cloud of dust all over him when a tiny flash in front caught his attention.

A sharp piercing noise and he tilted his head to the left immediately, something grazed past his ear. He jumped back away from the dust cloud.

A fine cut trickled blood on his right ear.

The dust settled down revealing Zoey with her lengthened nail.

"A second later before I saw it and I would have been Johnny'd." Rick wiped the blood with his hand. "So you smoked the area so I couldn't see your attack." He continued. "Plus you used an attack I didn't expect." He smirked. "Commendable kid."

Zoey lengthened all her nails by a few inches. It was like holding ten kitchen knives in both hands. She growled. "I'll shred you to pieces!"

He raised an eyebrow. His tone grew darker. "Playtime ends now."

Zoey was about to pounce when a huge and cold scaly arms locked her waist. It was no other than Steve. Of course a single blow wasn't enough to kill him, even though she poured as much strength as she could to bat him to the concrete wall. It wasn't just powerful enough to take him down.

He could have batted Rick but seeing how skilled he was, he would have evaded that too.

Steve was already in his devil form. His skin was dead gray and reptilian. His body became even more bulky. Against her warm body his flesh felt like steel – cold, thick and inhuman. He had no horns but rather he had two enormous black tusks growing out of his upper jaw. His barren head grew bony spines the lined crookedly along his back down to his one bulky and bony tail. His feet and hands were huge and calloused packed with thick predatory claws.

Steve locked her tight. He was humungous compared to her. Zoey could feel her stomach and diaphragm crumble inside. How could she scream in pain when she couldn't even breathe? She gasped painfully from his unbearably painful body lock.

Zoey tried kicking his shin. She scratched his arms and banged her head against his jaw. Nothing worked. Steve was a living tank. She could feel the crushing pressure breaking everything inside of her.

"THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR HUMILIATING ME!" Steve enraged. "I'LL MAKE YOU REGRET FOR THIS SHAMEFUL BETRAYAL!" He tightened the body lock even more and shook her wildly from side to side like a ragdoll.

Zoey could feel every inch of her skin and flesh slowly rip apart. It was a very savage process.

The crowd roared in excitement.

Zoey blindly pointed her nails backwards. One desperate attempt and her nail managed to hit Steve's eye and he immediately threw her away. "BITCH!" Steve staggered back.

Zoey rolled on the ground and gasped. She craved air, finally free from his body lock. And before she could get up, Rick was already in front of her. He raised a foot and stomped. Zoey barely dodged the attack. She crawled back. Her wounds started to heal, but it was healing slower than before.

Rick stepped forward and showcased a series of kicks. A hit after hit and then a block, another hit and a block, Zoey managed to block a couple of hits but most got her. It wasn't as powerful as she expected them to be but they came to her in quick sequences. It was too fast that most were unavoidable. She crossed her arms in defense. She tried hardening her arms as it hit Rick's last kick. A shockwave was released from the collision. A wave of pain travelled all over her body. She flew back. What met her behind was Steve.

"Oh shit." She cussed.

She hit against Steve's chest. She could have dodged and crawled away from him but the pain from Rick's kick earlier was crippling her. Why was she healing so slowly all of a sudden? Was she reaching her limit? Was her healing not able to keep up with the damage she'd been taking?

Steve smirked and grabbed her tail. With his huge arms, he raised her up and viciously slammed her to the ground, left and right, cracking and destroying the cement with each impact against her body. Zoey's body shuddered from the violence. Her flesh and bones splintered.

A spin and Steve threw her up where Rick was waiting. He had jumped earlier and now was already above waiting Zoey's brutally battered body.

He was also already in his devil form. He had red bright skin. His body was lean and muscular, unlike Steve and Johnny. He had two short horns growing at the side of his head. He had no claws, no scars and no spines. But instead he had red, thick and bony legs that looked like it could destroy the strongest steel with one kick.

He raised a leg.

Zoey was already half-dead from the beating. She had no idea of what was coming to her. Sad to say she was deeply overwhelmed by the two.

"Farewell kid."

She reached the peaked of her projectile and met Rick's overpowered kick against her back. Every bone in her body cracked so loudly that everyone in the stadium heard it. The remaining caged humans all cried in horror of what they were seeing. It was a one-sided merciless slaughtering.

Zoey cried out as she sped towards the ground at incredible speed like a shooting star. She crashed violently. She was bruised and torn beyond healing. Every centimeter of her skin was bleeding. Her insides were all shattered. She was bleeding both inside and out. All of her bones felt like they were powdered.

This was the first time Zoey felt such overwhelming pain.

Her rabid seizures turned into painful convulsions.

With her fractured ribs and shattered lungs, Zoey couldn't believe she was still breathing, but just barely.

She could faintly hear Rick landing on the ground. The blood in her eyes made her vision hazy. She shakily looked up and saw two figures – Rick and Steve without a doubt.

She twisted her head to the audiences, scanning from left to right. Her vision was getting worse, not only that it was getting hazier it was starting to darken. She was looking for the cage, the cage that both held Dawn and Kenny.

"Don't worry kid, we'll take care of your friends." She ignored Rick and continued searching. "They'll follow you soon after."

It was no good. Zoey wasn't healing anymore and her senses were all starting to shut down.

'Not now please.' She prayed. 'Give me more strength to fight. For the ones I care.'

Her red fur slowly disintegrated, her tail vanished. Her horns withdrew into nothingness and her claws turned back to normal. She had lost her metamorphosis. She was back to the old and weak Zoey right before she had entered this sick gymnasium filled with red-eyed maniacs.

'Please grant me more strength.'

Somehow, a part of Zoey wanted to die. After hearing what Will said about Marilyn, she wanted to meet her mother again and confirm it personally. However appealing that was, she couldn't leave Dawn and Kenny behind for such a selfish reason. And not now especially that she finally saw Kenny again.

She wanted to hug him. She missed him so much. His auburn hair had grown longer and it was now darker. His built was already sturdier than she remembered, but of course that would be logical – it's been ten years since she last saw him.

If only she could hug him one last time. Or even see him one last time.

But no matter how much she wanted not to die, it was impossible. She was dying and she definitely knew it.

'Please.' She prayed again. Tears streamed from her eyes. 'I just wanted to see him one last time.'

But before she could see the cage, Zoey's eyes finally closed. Reality was cruel. Her dying breaths were slowly running out.

The sea of red eyes went insane and jumped on their seat. They were all enjoying the carnage they all saw.

"Steve, you take care of those brats." Rick ordered. "I need to catch up to Master Will's meeting with Prince Lance." He reverted back to his normal form and went to get back his blazer. "This shouldn't have taken long."

"Got it." Steve replied. He also reverted back to normal.

"And also, don't forget the remaining humans." Rick added. He placed his blazer over his shoulder and started walking away.

The platform holding Dawn and Kenny's cage lowered down. He abruptly opened the cage of the two still unconscious individuals. "Now what shall we do with these two?"

"KILL THEM! KILL THEM! KILL THEM!" The crowd thundered. "KILL THEM KILL THEM!"

Steve's sick and red eyes bounced in between Dawn and Kenny. "Now who do you want me to kill first!?" He asked the crowd which only replied an unintelligent uproar.

He studied the two for a bit. He scratched his head reached inside the cage. "Guess I'll kill you first. I really hate girls."

He was about to grab Dawn's tiny wrist when a peculiar scent waved over the whole gymnasium.

Rick, who was about to leave the stadium by the gymnasium door, even paused when he caught the scent that drifted in the air.

Everyone in the gymnasium slowly caught the whiff. It was faint, but it was there.

Rick quickly looked back and locked his eyes at the top-most area. The top door swung open revealing a young boy with purple locks who just got in. He was wearing a simple purple coat with blue faded jeans. His fist was balled tightly in deep resentment. His expression was cold and threatening. For someone like Rick, for the first time in his life, a cold chill ran down his spine.

And what surprised Rick were his eyes – one purple and the other was red.

"Cursed half-blood.." Rick uttered in great disbelief. "So they really do exist?"

Paul's scent intensified at what he was seeing. Paul gritted his teeth in anger. The atmosphere suddenly thinned that Rick found it hard to breathe. His knees buckled, his skin went pale and he felt all his strength surging away from him.

"What unbelievable pressure!" He uttered as he held the walls for support.

Paul let out a low menacing growl and glared at Steve.

"Don't you dare lay a single finger on her." He warned. "Touch her and I will kill you." He added as waves of devils from the crowd closer to him started dying one after another.

* * *

 **A.N** : Tah-dah! And Paul makes a dramatic entrance,xD told ya I'll be investing bit by bit into Dawn and Paul's relationship aha and is Zoey dead? Of course not! She still has a lot of character development to do especially about finding out Dawn and Kenny's relationship. Thank you for the support and please do drop a few reviews. That would really brighten up my day :3 I can only hope I can improve my writing when it comes to action, this is actually the first time I've written something like this. But it interests me so it's totally okay. Hopefully I can update early,xD

Have a nice day! :)

...Kicks!


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